Dick Grayson

""They say skydiving is for people with a death wish. I've come to learn it's for people with a life wish. A wish for things to be as amazing as jumping out of a plane on a beautiful clear day from so high up that you feel you can almost touch the stars. And thats what I am going to do soon. Make the great leap. Touch the stars. Not as Nightwing. Not as a Titan. Not as an Outsider. Just as me. Richard Grayson." (Nightwing #141, 2008; by Peter Tomasi)"

""I close my eyes now for a few moments and I can see my parents riding the air current with me. Forever young. Forever strong. Their faces wide with excitement, big smiles on their faces, enjoying the adrenaline surge even more than I do. And there is one thing I am sure of … my parents would be proud of my life." (Nightwing #141, 2008; by Peter Tomasi)"

""Whenever someone's asked what power they wish they had, flying is always at the top of the list. But I have to admit. I've learned to love falling too." (Nightwing #142, 2008; by Peter Tomasi)"

""Impressive, Doctor Pennyworth. I'm gonna call Doctor Mid-Nite and maybe you guys can team up for a new reality show: "The Brave and the Bald."" (Nightwing #148, 2008; by Peter Tomasi)"

""Life's a carnival, Barbara, believe it or not." (Nightwing #150, 2008; by Peter Tomasi)"

""Okay Mom and Dad, your 'Flying Grayson' is about to take the great leap. Or as they say in French, Le Grand Saut. Down, down, and away. I'd say I wish you could see me now, but I know you're watching me - I can feel angels on my shoulders. And probably a bat too. You said some records aren't meant to be broken, Bruce. But more than anything, I wish you were down there right now watching with Alfred and Tim as I break this one." (Nightwing #151, 2009; by Peter Tomasi)"

""I think you should look at the sword I used today, Ra's, as a reminder that I'll always be there to face down evil, wherever it goes, wherever it hides. Always. (Nightwing #152, 2009; by Peter Tomasi)"

""Commuter train's a a good way to come into Gotham. Could've taken the shuttle from JFK to Goodwin Airport - a forty minute ride instead of a six hour one. But this time it felt like steel wheels were the way to go. I wanted to be closer. So I can see the enemy … and the people I"m here to protect and serve." (Nightwing #153, 2009; by Peter Tomasi)"

""Never been one for collecting things - holding onto stuff … less is more. There's a freedom to keeping possessions down to a minimum - going a little Spartan isn't a bad way to go through life. Sounds hypocritical coming from the guy who now lives in the manor on the hill, but its not my manor and its not my - ah, who am I kidding? It's really the only home I've ever known - I have to own up to that." (Nightwing #153, 2009; by Peter Tomasi)"

""Bruce has given Tim, Alfred and me an incredibly comfortable life free from want. The Wayne family name's always been synonymous with public service. And honoring the Wayne family name is the particular way that we do every night will always be our responsibility. My responsibility." (Nightwing #153, 2009; by Peter Tomasi)"

""Thinking of Bruce kneeling here alone in the blood of his mom and dad - the cordite of the fired gun still fresh in the air … it takes everything I have to hold the tears back. So much loss. It's strange how in the end that cold, evil deed even dictated my own future. I see Bruce. I see me. And seeing those old wax spots on the cave floor a few weeks ago got me thinking about the oath I made to Bruce … and what it really means. The light from the candle didn't just help us see the words better that night … The light from this candle was a beacon for the wounded soul of a young boy … it helped me see a path of selflessness and devotion. Devotion to the common good. And this light must always shine no matter what. In those single life-altering moments … we both had to depend on the kindness of strangers. And lucky for us … they were caring and loving people … at the end of all that pain and horror. Thank you, Bruce. There will always be hope in Gotham City." (Nightwing #153, 2009; by Peter Tomasi)"

""I'm done taking any more day jobs. It's simply not necessary. Gotham needs my attention 24/7. I owe it to Bruce-- hell-- I owe it to Gotham. I grew up there, it's my hometown, it's in my bones." (Nightwing #153, 2009; by Peter Tomasi)"

"We want the same things, Mr. Wayne. And if you'll let me, I want to help you fight for them. (Nightwing Vol 3 0, 2012 by Kyle Higgins)"

"The city has thrown its worst at me. It's taken its best shot... twisted creations and all. But I'm still standing. I'm still here. Now, Gotham has nothing that can scare me. (Nightwing Vol 3 1, 2011 by Kyle Higgins and Rod Reis)"

"I want to save the soul of Gotham. (Nightwing Vol 3 10, 2012 by Kyle Higgins)"

"This is the first time I've been out here since Damian saved the city. The first time since...Robin died. Two weeks ago, Joker turned my world upside down. He burned Amusement Mile. The people I trusted -- and who trusted me-- either died or left for good. But Damian was there. He was my brother. And now...now I'm supposed to move forward. Right. Forward. (Nightwing Vol 3 18, 2013 by Kyle Higgins)"

""You know everything has just changed. Part of you thinks your life is over. The other part thinks that's just something people say. You're in shock. It does feel real. Your friends are there for you. But they don't understand. You're only sure of one thing. You want to hurt the person that hurt you... Time moves on. You start a new life. Part of it's a defense mechanism. You don't want to defined by the terrible thing that happened. You don't want to be hurt anymore. You want to be someone stronger. So you "try on" different people. Until you find the right you... Then one day, your old life comes back. It turned out different than how you imagined. You friends have changed as much as you have. You wonder if that's somehow your fault. If you're the reason things feel apart. If you should have done something different. A lot of things go through your mind. You start to question what you've become. What you could have been. What some say you should have been. You worry you haven't done enough with your life. That your parents wouldn't be proud of you. You swear you're going to do better. You're going to be better. You're going to build a legacy. But sometime you don't get the chance. Sometimes you do let people down. But not always.(Nightwing Vol 3 29, 2014 by Kyle Higgins)"

"Part of it's a defense mechanism. You don't want to be defined by the terrible thing that happened. You don't want to be hurt anymore. You want to be someone stronger. So you "try on" different people. Until you find the right you.(Nightwing Vol 3 29, 2014 by Kyle Higgins)"

""The last few years haven't been easy. But for every Court of Owls, every Amusement Mile... There's a morning like this. There's a Jen. And most days that's enough. To focus on the positive. To keep looking forward. To really give someone a chance. Because when you get down to it, my life isn't about the costumes or the bad guys. It's not about the cities or symbols. It's way simpler than that. I mean, I grew up in a circus. It's always been about catching people when they fall." (Nightwing Vol 3 29, 2014 by Kyle Higgins)"

""We fall because someone pushes us. We get up to push back." (Nightwing Vol 3 30, 2014 by Tim Seeley & Tom King)"

""I trusted someone. And people died. Just like you, Jimmy. It made me question who I trust. If I even trusted myself. But when I look in the mirror, I don't see a monster. I see a human. Someone who makes mistakes, and tries to do better. Like the Run-Offs. Like Shawn. You went looking for monsters. Because what you see in other people... it's your own reflection." (Nightwing Vol 4 14, 2017 by Tim Seeley)"

""For a second I think I'm still in the ocean of worlds. But this my world. My story. I'm the hero. And this is most definitely the villain." (Nightwing Vol 4 17, 2017 by Tim Seeley"

""I've spent so much time making sure I'm not driven by tragedy. By revenge. By anger. It's important to me. Having that pregnancy scare and everything we went through, made me realize I want my child to learn that from me." (Nightwing Vol 4 23, 2017 by Tim Seeley"

""When someone dies, their passing does something strange to everyone who knew them. It forces a reset. In the seconds, minutes, days after, you ask what life will be like without them. And you ask if you're doing the most you can...with the short amount of time you've got. Who are you? Why do you do what you do? And what do you really want?" (Nightwing Vol 4 28, 2017 by Tim Seeley"

""You were supposed to be watching out for her from the shadows. If you'd followed Zucco, you'd have seen him put acid on the line. But instead you saw the bigger get. The better hand. So you built a new brand to hide behind. You cobbled together a costume taken from a half-dozen different super-heroes to convince yourself you weren't the bad guy. You built a metal glove and named it after the Romani wizard Suyolak, chained to a rock to prevent him from destroying the world. You caged the fingers that had betrayed you and destroyed your world. You blamed Bruce Wayne. The rich. The elite. Me. Anything to avoid blaming yourself. Dealer wins." (Nightwing Vol 4 32, 2018 by Tim Seeley"

""Yeah, well...I had everyone fooled. Everything they called me back then...The young daredevil! A living hurricane! Hard-fisted little-scrapper! I was punching and kicking and joking all the time...everyone forgot what I had been through. I was still a kid who saw my parents killed. Becoming a crime-fighter wasn't a cure for my grief. It was an outlet. And sometimes, all that pain...it made me reckless" (Nightwing Vol 4 37, 2018 by Sam Humphries)"

""Yeah. I mean -- of course. They have to take responsibility for the things they did, but -- none of us are our worst moments" (Nightwing Vol 4 41, 2018 by Sam Humphries)"

""...While it's great to be a person that others can rely on, a person they need. I've learned that it's okay to need them, too. That's what friends are for, right?" (Nightwing Vol 4 43, 2018 by Michael Moreci)"

""Something happened last night. Something I can't quite make sense of. As Dick Grayson, I'm a guy who will always choose a face-to-face conversation over a phone call or an e-mail. And as Nightwing, I'm the kind of hero who prefers to crack a jaw or sweep a leg over chasing some invisible threat. But bank robbers no longer wear ski masks and carry shotguns. They hack accounts. And assassins don't position their rifles on rooftops. They program drones. How do you fight? How do you date? How do you even talk to anyone anymore. The rules keep changing. It's honestly hard to know how to be alive right now." (Nightwing Vol 4 44, 2018 by Benjamin Percy)"

""Can we please go back to the days when all you needed to be a hero was a grappling hook and a tireless supply of punches?" (Nightwing Vol 4 46, 2018 by Benjamin Percy)"

""I'm not going to pretend to be the best motorcyclist in this race. But once you get me up in the air... it's no contest. This is the equivalent of a violent trapeze. And with circus physics on my side... I can deliver the endgame." (Nightwing Vol 4 49, 2018 by Benjamin Percy)"

"You'll never know if you can fly unless you take the risk of falling"

"If you want Robin to stay dead, that's okay with me. But you've trained me too well -- made me what I am. You can't keep me from pursuing my own destiny."

"He raised me to think. But he’s no longer thinking. He taught me the importance of justice, but lately he hasn’t been just. He was like a father to me, and I loved him… and though he could never bring himself to say it, I know he loved me too. I feel like the child of an alcoholic - you know the problem isn’t yours, but it is. You want to help, but you don’t know how, so you lie awake at night in fear and confusion, and nothing gets resolved. I’m not sure, but I think Bruce is going crazy, and I’m lost not knowing what to do."

"I used to think he was more real as Batman than as Bruce Wayne...but because he can't just be some cold super-hero around me, I think Bruce is becoming more real too. Look, I know what we're doing is important, but it's not everything. Mom and dad always taught me to enjoy myself, I think maybe I'm helping Bruce to enjoy himself, too."

"Dick: You weren't the perfect father but that's okay because -- probably nobody's a perfect father. No family's perfect, either. I was lucky. I was privileged. Not because of the big house and the money, but because you gave me a lot of yourself. You taught me, you showed me, you encouraged me -- you never lied to me and you never demanded that I be anything I’m not. I didn’t imitate you because you insisted that I do so, but because I wanted to. Of all the men I knew, you were most worthy of imitation. Then I blamed you for letting me be who I was. Pretty dumb."

"Bruce: Dick, I don't --"

"Dick: Hold it. I've got one more thing to say. You and Alfred gave me a home and you gave me what we don't mention. The L word. You were the best family I could have had. Thanks."

"[Talking about Blüdhaven] It's a hopeless case. A lost cause. A town so mired in corruption and sin that it's drowning … When Batman sent me here, I thought I'd solve one case and book. But then I realized … if I could make a difference here -- well, that'd be something. This filthy old town needs me…. Surrounded by a dozen of my worst enemies. No way out. Nowhere to hide. The little brat was right. I do love it."

"Lady, every morning when I drift to sleep, I hear the screams of loved ones I didn't save. Don't you dare lecture me on what I know.”"

"[Talking to the new JLA during the Obsidian Age] The transition is going to be... difficult. The more I look at the shoes we're suppossed to walk in, the more it scares the hell out of me. But it doesn't matter. We were chosen to be here. Out of many other possible candidates...He chose us. A master of human condition. A cynic, a believer. He chose us to carry on where he fell... and we accepted. We will not mess it up. End of speech. I don't want to make another one. I hate making speeches. So... the first official roundtable of the Justice League is now in session. Let's do some good."

"I had a good teacher, except for the interpersonal skills and the ability to work with others. That was me."

"You prepare yourself for this day … well, prepare is the wrong word … Do you prepare yourself for the sun to rise, or for water to flow from a tap? No. These are knowables. These are eventualities. I knew I would never see him as an old man. No, he'd leave us in a box, with jet black hair, and the only lines on his face would be ones brought by injury. You knew it wouldn't end well. Despite all the training. All the brilliance. All the strength … under it all there was just flesh, blood and bone. And a man who never feared death. You know as well as I do he was frightened of a great many things, but his own mortality barely made the top hundred list with him. I just … I … I just wasn't ready to lose him."

"You know, maybe it's a good thing the Watchtower was destroyed. Maybe it's time you guys stopped playing God from on high and started remembering how the real world operates."

"This fight can't be won if we pull our punches."

"There are things that none of you are willing to do. Things that have to be done for the common good. I will do these things."

"I always wanted - expected to-to grow up and - and become him. And the hero bit, I'm still all in. But that thing inside of him, that thing that drives him to sacrifice everything for the sake of his mission, that's not me. I don't want to be Batman - anymore."

"I don't care who my ancestor was. Or what the Court of Owls wanted me to be, I don't. We are who we choose to be, Bruce. Not the role the past says we should play. The court of Owls is just another bad guy, Bruce. They're little grayer around the temples is all. Yes, you made a mistake and underestimated them but they're not Gotham City, Bruce. And neither are you."

"Any sheep-rattler can win with a fist, yeah? Only we can win with a story."

""With you guys, it seems like I'm hot stuff … a know-it-all … but I've been back with The Batman again, and next to him I feel like I'm a stupid kid repeating fifth grade … for the third time." (New Teen Titans #20, 1982; by Marv Wolfman)."