Fictional Characters

"The Master is part of a greater design, because a shadow is falling over creation. Something vast is stirring in the dark!"

"The Master took the name of Saxon. He married a human, a woman called Lucy, and he corrupted her. She stood at his side while he conquered the Earth. I reversed everything he'd done so it had never even happened, but Lucy Saxon remembered. I held him in my arms. I burned his body. The Master is dead!"

"It can't end like this. You and me, all the things we've done. … Axons, remember the Axons? And the Daleks?… We're the only two left. I have no one else. REGENERATE!"

"You wouldn't listen. Because you know what I'm going to say... I forgive you."

"Children of Gallifrey were taken from their families at the age of eight, to enter the Academy. Some say that's where it all began, when he was a child. That's when the Master saw eternity. As a novice, he was taken for initiation. He stood in front of the Untempered Schism. It's a gap in the fabric of reality through which could be seen the whole of the vortex. We stand there, eight years old, staring at the raw power of Time and Space, just a child. Some would be inspired. Some would run away. And some would go mad."

"It was on the planet Skaro that my old enemy, the Master, was finally put on trial. They say he listened calmly as his list of evil crimes was read and sentence passed. Then he made his last, and I thought somewhat curious, request. He demanded that I, the Doctor, a rival Time Lord, should take his remains back to our home planet — Gallifrey. It was a request they should never have granted."

"If David Hume had designed the Cybermen to be perfectly reasonable but emotionless, they'd do nothing at all. They'd have no impetus since they'd care about nothing. Mondas would simply drift past the Earth in "The Tenth Planet." Human scientists would no doubt eagerly attempt to contact this newly discovered form of alien life, but the Cybermen wouldn't even wave back at our telescopes. When the new Cybermen are brought to John Lumic, he'd bark orders at them only to be ignored by creatures who, lacking emotions, care no more about what he wants than about whether they live or die. Cybermen built to be reasonable but lacking emotion would be a race indistinguishable from statues, fit only to serve as shop mannequins."

"Do you know any nice people? Y'know, normal everyday people, not power-crazed nutters trying to take over the galaxy?"

"You'd delay an execution to pull the wings off a fly."

"Get out of the way. … You did this to me! All of my life! You made me! One! Two! Three! Four!"

"The human race was always your favourite, Doctor. But now, there is no human race. There is only... the Master race!"

"You can't do this! You can't do...IT'S NOT FAIR!"

"Citizens of Earth, rejoice. Your Lord and Master stands on high."

"Before we start all that, I just wanted to say: thank you. Thank you, one and all, you ugly, fat-faced bunch of wet, snivelling traitors."

"Life is wasted on the living!"

"Are you listening to me?"

"Hello-o-o-o"

"Would you like a jelly baby? (Sometimes slightly changed to "Have a jelly baby." and other variations)"

"This extraordinary character who is everything at all times. It's continuously inspiring really, to get to play this mercurial, anarchic, extraordinary creature who gets all the best lines and gets to be the cleverest person in the room. I'm sure I'll miss lots about it, but I'll forever be proud to have been part of it, to be part of that history."

"The Fourth Doctor: Shut up, K-9!"

"Quite right!"

"You took your time, K-9! (after thanking someone else for coming)"

"Take me to your leader."

"You're standing on my scarf."

"Batman: I don't think that's something you have to worry about, Robin"

"“Dick has so many connections to other characters. In many ways, even more than Superman or Batman, Nightwing is the soul, the linchpin, of the DCU. He’s well respected by everyone, known to the JLA, the Titans, the Outsiders, Birds of Prey – everyone looks to him for advice, for friendship, for his skills. He’s the natural leader of the DCU."

"Dick is a sponge. He of course learned a great deal from Bruce, but I see him as taking what he knows and improvising, using his natural acrobatic prowess in everything he does. It's ingrained in him. He's more fluid. But let's face it; Dick and Bruce simply know how to open a can of whup-ass better than anyone."

"… A Nightwing story should have what every good story should have, which is a character you simply want to follow through thick and thin. A character who's adventures you wanna go on. A character with heart, intelligence, and wit. And as I mentioned earlier in a previous interview with ya, Nightwing is a character who can support all kinds of genre inclusion. I don't think there's a box. The world is literally wide open for Nightwing and you can put him on any ride you want and I feel it will work, whether in crime alley land, space land or jungle land. Nightwing is a character who travels well, and has no limits except for the ones a writer puts on him."

"My view of Nightwing, or rather Dick Grayson is that he's a very capable person, caring, smart but not overly so, but has the ability to see through puzzles. Unfortunately, he can't see through the puzzles of his own life, as few of us can. He's trying to figure things out assuming life always have answers, which of course it doesn't. But I see him as very, very competent, just not always self-aware. And he is perhaps a bit too critical of himself."

"Dick not only saw his parents die, but he was raised by Batman with a strict code of ethics. Whereas Batman festered with his anger, Dick did not. But Dick saw how someone like Batman was able to help him and many others. Since he fought alongside Batman, he saw how much good he could do, and therefore he has the need to continue to do it. But unlike Batman it doesn't come from some long ago need for revenge, it comes from a true desire to make a difference. Therefore Nightwing has a positive attitude rather than a negative one. But it has had impact on his persona life, and now that he's in his mid-twenties, his early decisions are demanding some new thinking."

"...I like him a lot because of his history, he's been around so long, and there's a certain sleek sexuality about the character. He's got a certain sense of everyman, a young swashbuckler type. He's probably the only character to have developed a rabid following. That I find incredible, particularly because he came out as a sidekick - that he's got the strongest following of any character really makes me feel good about Nightwing. He's the only Titan who made the CBG poll, and it was great, you know. The fact that he's still fresh after all these years."

"Dick Grayson is kind of this consummate superhero. The guy has been Batman's partner since he was a kid, he's led the Teen Titans, and he's trained with everybody in the DC Universe. So he's a very different kind of Batman. He's a lot easier; He's a lot looser and more relaxed."

"Bruce Wayne in my mind came from privilege and I think that's why he's more dour and angry. He's self-made as far as his becoming all of these cool things we like him for... Dick Grayson didn't come from that. Dick Grayson came from a circus family. Essentially people who aren't rich and they are self-made. They're entertainers. They're gymnasts. They're people who live hand-to-mouth and that's something that informs him and his attitude... he's a fascinating guy to me, because he had all the same things happen to him. He's got some of the same negatives as Bruce Wayne and then from a society standpoint -- obviously he was adopted into Bruce Wayne's life... but he didn't start that way. He's this guy who has all these negatives and then even more negatives and yet he remains... Those are things why I like Dick Grayson, why I like the idea of Nightwing as a movie."

"Throughout his history, Dick Grayson has been an integral part of one of the most famous and financially successful franchises in history. Dick has also repeatedly been on the cutting edge of developments in superhero comics, starting with his inception as the first sidekick and continuing to his adoption of Batman's cowl. But the character can also serve as a lens for viewing the world outside of comics, whether it be moral development, the homoerotic, or gendered readership. Dick Grayson is not simply a one-note sidekick but one of the most complex and developed characters in comics. Surprisingly, especially given the interest in studies of popular culture, Grayson has received scant scholarly attention. Grayson has been connected with Batman for all but the Bat's first eleven months (May 1939 to March 1940), but, even if scholars are not deliberately excluding Robin from consideration, they tend to select topics of inquiry that focus on Batman alone. Those already familiar with the character will note that Grayson played a large role in a number of team books such as Teen Titans and The New Teen Titans. Unfortunately these books have received scant scholarly attention."

"The dynamic that most interested me about Batman from day one was that he was, in his own weird way, a parent - and that relationship is just as fascinating when you flip it to look at it from Dick's point of view. As Robin, Dick lived out one of the most enduring human fantasies: the chance to be respected by and useful to a hero figure who fills your life with adventure. The price paid for that, though, is having Batman as a parent - Batman who is able to do the incredible things he does in part because he has sacrificed other developmental aspects of himself, such as the ability to be intimate or supportive. And in the face of all of this, Dick has had some resentment and some anger and, I think, a lot of pain, but he has also never for one moment of his life shied away from it, or away from Bruce. He embraces his life and his vocation and his sometimes-difficult mentor with absolute commitment and gratitude. Nothing is wasted on Nightwing - he makes use of every single gift bestowed upon him."

"The character beat I find most interesting with Nightwing is how deeply he experiences frustration and pain, and then how totally done with that he is by the time he's making an actual decision or evaluation. He's not in denial about the darkness in his life the way Batman sometimes is, and in fact he's remarkably self-aware and conscientious, but he acts from a place of loyalty and gratitude and even joy."

"I knew many homosexuals but I certainly didn’t think of Batman in those terms. I thought of it in terms of … Frank Merriwell and Dick Merriwell, his half-brother, who was the kid he was taking care of. … In America we always talk about the Western hero and the pioneer kind of man—the Davy Crockett types—as being loners. They’re never really. They always have a sidekick. … Certainly there’s no homosexual relationship. It’s just part of the American syndrome. … It was just that the author realized that you’ve gotta have somebody to talk to. Sherlock Holmes had Watson—were they homosexuals? Baloney. You just can’t have your hero walking around thinking aloud all the time. He’d be ready for the men in white coats after a time. So we created a junior Watson and that’s all [Robin] was."

"Robin was an outgrowth of a conversation I had with Bob. As I said, Batman was a combination of Douglas Fairbanks and Sherlock Holmes. Holmes had his Watson. The thing that bothered me was that Batman didn't have anyone to talk to, and it got a little tiresome always having him thinking. I found that as I went along Batman needed a Watson to talk to. That's how Robin came to be. Bob called me over and said he was going to put a boy in the strip to identify with Batman. I thought it was a great idea""

"Robin was an explicit role model for youngsters. The last panel in Batman #1, spells out the values that he stood for and urges readers: "Always be helpful to those who need help!" Why not become one of "Robin's Regulars?" No button or badge is needed- the world will recognize your golden acts without them! Be a "Robin Regular" by being regular!"

"In Manufacturing Desire, communications professor Arthur Asa Berger (seven years old in 1940) wrote: Like many other super heroes, Batman provides youngsters with a young side kick hero to identify with-Robin, though it is Batman who captured the imagination of children the most.... During the Batman rage of a number of years ago [presumably the mid 1960s], many children in my neighborhood used to tie a towl around their neck and play Batman. It was always the youngest and weakest children who were forced into the Robin role."

"Nostalgist Don Edrington (nine years old in 1940) recalled: My favorite superheroes were Batman and Robin. I especially liked them because I could identify with Robin-I was sure he was exactly my age. I was positive of that when i first started reading the comics at about age nine, and I was still convinced he was my age when I was fourteen or fifteen."

"The unchanging nature of those Batman and Robin stories did not hurt their appeal to the young readers who were the main market for super-hero comics. In fact, the team became one of the most popular and enduring in the genre, appearing together in every issue of Detective Comics, and then Batman, and then with Superman on World's Finest. Indeed, the Boy Wonder was popular enough to appear on more ccomic-book covers in the 1940s than Batman himself."

"After 1941 or so, Whitney Ellsworth and his editorial successors steered Batman and robin's career, assigning stories to a variety of writers and artists. That corporate approach froze the characters in place for decades. Panels from the early 1940s look almost interchangeable with panels from the early 1960s."

""Dick Grayson's resolve is far too strong to ever be darkened." (New Teen Titans Annual #7, 1991; by Marv Wolfman)"

""Before I put on suit, I begged him to take it back. That's Dick for you. Grinning as he offers you the role that everyone and their brother knows belongs to him. He was the first. He's the best. He's always going to be the role model." - Tim Drake (Robin 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1, 2020; by Adam Beechen)"

""Dick Grayson has been a showman about as long as he could walk. I still remember going to see him at the circus. He was everything I wanted to be. Hell, he still is. He was the first Robin. The founder of the Teen Titans. The first sidekick to go off and make a name for himself. Nightwing." - Tim Drake (Robin 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1, 2020; by Adam Beechen)"

""You are not Dicky-Boy. Or even Ric! You are not some anonymous guy in a suit of action! Your name is Dick! And you are no more The Joker's child than I am! You were the first--the best Robin! You built the Teen Titans into an enduring force. Look at that suit! These days, you are...Nightwing!" - Barbara Gordon (Nightwing Vol 4 73, 2020 by Dan Jurgens)"

""How do I fight him? Dick was trained by the best ever. He's Batman's equal." - Barbara Gordon (Nightwing Vol 4 73, 2020 by Dan Jurgens)"

""Impressive. Richard's superiority is evident, Beatrice. He's everything I dreamed of and more... He is now a true assassin. A Talon born and bred... He is as much as a Talon as I am. Unstoppable and deadly." - William Cobb (Nightwing Vol 4 67, 2020 by Dan Jurgens)"

""I knew a boy once... He simply knew no fear. I thought it was a mask, a facade, but I came to realize it was the greatest weapon he had. Not only had this allowed him to understand and cope with adversity. It allowed him to thrive because of that adversity. I long believed that fear alone-- fight or flight-- was all that kept us safe. But that boy showed me there was another way... And now, Ric, you have shown me that method works. To eliminate fear as an option-- To ignore it's very existence-- is a very... Worthy approach." - Scarecrow (Nightwing Vol 4 54, 2019 by Scott Lobdell & Fabian Nicieza)"