"I should put this spike in his throat...he'd do it to me. He'd kill me and not blink. Kill him and not blink. Why not? In No Man's Land why...not? (sees Batsymbol reflected on the glass drops knife and lets thug go). Batman No Man's Land #0"

""I'm not even that fond of real cops. But wannabe cops... now they just tick me right off." - Birds of Prey #69"

""You guys sure you want to fire your sidearms around gas pumps? Just asking." - Birds of Prey #69"

""You. You ratted me out to Brushaw's fake police officers. Now was that polite?" - Birds of Prey #69"

"(upon finding Black Canary bound by tree branches) "This might take a while. I forgot my chainsaw." - Birds of Prey #76"

"(after shooting a crossbow bolt through a crooked cop's hand, Black Canary and John are staring at her) "What? He'll be fine. We're in a hospital." - Birds of Prey #80"

"Nightwing: You want to know a secret? Everyone but me thinks you're nuts, there's a secret!"

"Black Canary: Hey, how'd you know about Cheetah's healing factor?"

"Tom: I don't talk to women who wear make-up, anyway. It's unclean. So just shut up."

"Talia: And Who are you? The Detective's consort? His woman?"

"I made a promise on the grave of my parents that I would rid this city of the evil that took their lives. By day, I am Bruce Wayne, billionaire philanthropist. At night, criminals, a cowardly and superstitious lot, call me... Batman."

"Ladies. Gentlemen. You have eaten well. You've eaten Gotham's wealth. Its spirit. Your feast is nearly over. From this moment on -- none of you are safe."

"Without warning, it comes...crashing through the window of your study, and mine...I have seen it before...somewhere. It frightened me as a boy... frightened me. Yes, father. I shall become a bat."

"Batman: (to the Joker) Don't you understand? I don't want to hurt you. I don't want either of us to end up killing the other. But we're both running out of alternatives, and we both know it. Maybe it all hinges on tonight. Maybe this is our last chance to sort this whole bloody mess out. If you don't take it, then we're both locked onto a suicide course. Both of us. To the death. It doesn't have to end like that. I don't know what it was that bent your life out of shape, but who knows? Maybe I've been there too. Maybe I can help. We could work together. I could rehabilitate you. You needn't be out there on the edge anymore. You needn't be alone. We don't have to kill each other. What do you say?"

"Batman: (to the Joker) Hello. I came to talk. I've been thinking lately. About you and me. About what's going to happen to us in the end. We're going to kill each other, aren't we? Perhaps you'll kill me. Perhaps I'll kill you. Perhaps sooner. Perhaps later."

"That vase was from the Ming Dynasty. Alfred will forgive me... eventually."

"Criminals are a terror. Hearts of the night. I must disguise my terror. Criminals are cowardly. A superstitious terrible omen. A cowardly lot. My disguise must strike terror. I must be black. Terrible. Criminals are a superstitious cowardly lot. I must be a creature. I must be a creature of the night. Mommy's dead. Daddy's dead. Brucie's dead. I shall become a bat."

"Sometimes it's only madness that makes us what we are."

"[To Mutant Leader] You don't get it, boy... this isn't a mudhole... it's an operating table. And I'm the surgeon."

"[To Superman] I want you to remember Clark, In all the years to come, in your most private moments, I want you to remember my hand at your throat, I want you to remember the one man who beat you."

"I believe in Jim Gordon. I believe in Harvey Dent. I believe in Gotham City."

"Criminals are a superstitious cowardly lot. So my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts. I must be a creature of the night, black, terrible..."

"Did I finally reach the limits of reason? And find the Devil waiting? And was that fear in his eye?"

"And as the sun, that had been too afraid to show its face in this city, started to turn the black into grey, I smiled. Not out of happiness. But because I knew... that one day, I wouldn't have to do this anymore. One day, I could stop fighting. Because one day... I would win. One day, there will be no pain, no loss, no crime. Because of me, because I fight. For you. One day, I will win."

"(to the Joker) And when you're sitting here alone in the middle of the night, unsleeping in the dark, remember -- every breath you take you owe to me."

"(to Superman) Everyone looks up to you. They listen to you. If you tell them to fight, they'll fight. But they need to be inspired. And let's face it "Superman"... the last time you really inspired anyone -- was when you were dead."

"People think it's an obsession. A compulsion. As if there were an irresistible impulse to act. It's never been like that. I chose this life. I know what I'm doing. And on any given day, I could stop doing it. Today, however, isn't that day. And tomorrow won't be either."

"by Jeph Loeb with art by Jim Lee"

"I have been to too many funerals."

"They say that when you kill a man you not only take away what he was, but all he will ever be."

"Deep down, Clark's essentially a good person... and deep down, I'm not."

"Criminals, by nature, are a cowardly and superstitious lot. To instill fear into their hearts, I became a bat. A monster in the night. And in doing so, have I become the very thing that all monsters become - alone?"

"Storm: Professor, if Rogue stays, I go."

"Scott Summers: Hanks articulate as anything, but what people see is mostly ... well, a beast. Emma's a former villain, Logan's a [[thug. And me .. I can lead a team. But I haven't looked anybody in the eye since I was fifteen."

"Remember, the X-Men universe was created in the early '60s in the height of the American Civil Rights movement. So, these ideas of bigotry, tolerance, fear, war ... I think are perpetual ideas. We've had them for thousands of years, ever since man recognized his fellow man and that two people had two different color hair."

"Magneto’s an old terrorist bastard. I got into trouble—the X-Men fans hated me because I made him into a stupid old drug-addicted idiot. He had started out as this sneering, grim terrorist character, so I thought, Well, that’s who he really is. [Writer] Chris Claremont had done a lot of good work over the years to redeem the character: He made him a survivor of the death camps and this noble antihero. And I went in and shat on all of it. It was right after 9/11, and I said there’s nothing f*****g noble about this at all."

"I couldn't have everybody bitten by a radioactive spider or exposed to a gamma ray explosion. And I took the cowardly way out. I said to myself, 'Why don't I just say they're mutants. They were born that way."

"This was a period when we were experimenting with the atom bomb. People were wondering what the effects would be. Everybody worried ‘Would we all become mutants? We played around with this ‘mutation thing’ and I came up with the X-Men, who were associated with radiation and its effects on humanity."

"The X-Men, I did the natural thing there. What would you do with mutants who were just plain boys and girls and certainly not dangerous? You school them. You develop their skills. So I gave them a teacher, Professor X. Of course, it was the natural thing to do, instead of disorienting or alienating people who were different from us, I made the X-Men part of the human race, which they were. Possibly, radiation, if it is beneficial, may create mutants that’ll save us instead of doing us harm. I felt that if we train the mutants our way, they’ll help us - and not only help us, but achieve a measure of growth in their own sense. And so, we could all live together."

"I like the very large themes that are in this and the comic books which were originally kind of an allegory for the Malcolm X/Martin Luther King debate."

"The problem is not staying on for 16 or 17 years -- I mean, theoretically anybody could do that. But the thing that made X-Men unique in its day was that the first iteration of the series that Stan and Jack created in 1962 had run its course. It wasn't a success. So when Dave Cockrum and Len Wein worked together to build the new X-Men, we were essentially starting with a clean slate. Aside from Charles Xavier being the mentor and Scott Summers showing up to run the shop, everything was brand new. And the way the industry is structured now, the way that Marvel or DC or Image are structured now, that's unlikely to happen again. You don't have that mainstream series that you can recreate in public before everyone's eyes and come up with something completely new and different. So I don't think that opportunity will come again. I just happened to have the ridiculous good fortune of being in the precisely great place at the precisely great time, and I got to run with it."

"Cyclops, Storm, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Colossus. Children of the atom, students of Charles Xavier. MUTANTS-feared and hated by the world they have sworn to protect. These are the STRANGEST heroes of all! Stan Lee presents: The Uncanny X-Men!"

"For me, the whole idea was that the number was small enough that they could be expunged if the world got determined about it. You know, that it was something that the Avengers, if they wanted, could deal with. That was what gave Magneto so much of his passion and focus. In terms of defending his people, they really were dancing along the edge of extinction and they really did need someone like him. The difference, and the reason that the school was so intent on remaining clandestine, was that if they were exposed, they could be destroyed."

"If you don't let me in, I will turn you into a demon half-face waitress night-club lady with a crush on her boss, and I'll make it so you've been that from the beginning of time to now and you'll never ever know if you were anything else and it will itch inside your head worse than little bugses."

"Alianora foretold that I would receive my scars, in my turn, like the one I left on her cheek, like the one I left on her heart. She knew it then."

"A customer at Lux's, drunk and flirtatious, peeks beneath Mazikeen's half-mask. He satisfies his curiosity, as he loses, one after the other, his drink, his lunch, and his sanity. Mazikeen has no patience with men."

"This will be felt across worlds and days as a reality storm; and, as it plays its course, conflicting realities will fall and spin and shatter across time and existence."

"They aren't your memories." "They are all I have."

"No miracles. No magic. No dreams. Just pain and death, and Visa slips."

"On reflection, while I cannot give you the thing itself, I could give you a dream of my love." "I already have that, my Lord."