Quote-o-rama:
BatmanFor my quotes from Batman: The Brave and the Bold, go here.
"We impose meaning on the chaos of our lives. We create form, morality, order. It's a choice we have to make every second of every minute of every day." _Batman: Absolution_ "I'm a detective. If I worship anything - it's logic." _Batman: Absolution_ "Years ago, I created a mighty lie: an almost demonic creature of violence and vengeance; a night-beast whose very presence would strike fear into the criminal heart. But the lie was born to serve the greater good. The lie protected the innocent, the forsaken. The lie serves justice." _Batman: Absolution_ "I can't believe in miracless in a God who looks down on us, dispensing His unfathomable brand of justice when and if He wills." _Batman: Absolution_ "No miracles. No mercy. No redemption. No Heaven. No Hell. No higher power. Just life. Just... us." _Batman: Absolution_ "My fate... which I leave in the hands of strangers... old gods who still believe in old tricks. I wager my destiny on new tricks. I believe the future can be changed. I believe I can alter its outcome." _Batgirl: Year One_ "After all, if he ever stopped to wonder what difference one man can make - there would never have been a Batman._ _Batman: Cataclysm_ Terry: What can you tell me about clowns? Barbara Gordon: In this town, they're never funny. _Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker_ Nightwing: Hey, uh, Croc? What are you doing here? Killer Croc: Well, you know, I heard the sounds of someone in trouble. Robin: And you were going to help? Killer Croc: No, I was gonna see if they had any money I could take. _Gotham Adventures_ "Metropolis. It is very different from Gotham City and for that alone... I try to avoid coming here." _Batman: Hush_ "That bad guy is the Icicle. He'll never win. It's like I'm always telling you, Bruce. You gotta be able to think like your opponent." -Tommy Elliot, _Batman: Hush_ "No. Not here. Not now. Not him." _Batman: Hush_ "If Clark wanted, he could use his superspeed and squish me into the cement. But I know how he thinks. Even more than the Kryptonite, he's got one big weakness. Deep down, Clark's essentially a good person... and deep down, I'm not." _Batman: Hush_ Catwoman: You've studied Superman, haven't you? Batman: He's the best he is at what he does. Catwoman: That's open to debate. Batman: I said, he's the best at what he does. Not at what I do. _Batman: Hush_ Batman: If detective work were easy... everyone would be doing it. Nightwing: Was that... humor? Now, I am worried about you. _Batman: Hush_ "The first person I ever revealed my identity to was Dick Grayson. He was about the same age I was when my parents were killed. His parents - circus acrobats - had been murdered. And I... wanted to make a difference in his life... the way, if my parents had lived, they would have made a difference in mine..." _Batman: Hush_ "Perry White is too good a reporter not to have uncovered Clark's secret. And yet, he acts otherwise... reminding me how good a detective Jim Gordon is back in Gotham City..." _Batman: Hush_ "...At the time, the transition from Robin to Nightwing was difficult for us both - it was a day I had long prepared myself for because Dick was born to be in the center ring." _Batman: Hush_ "I think about Edward Nigma and the life he has had as the Riddler. Where once his obsessive need to leave me riddles as clues would confound me... Everything about him has become routine. I half-expected him to have retired by now." _Batman: Hush_ "Dick saw being Robin as a thrill. It's probably why he outgrew it. Jason saw Robin as a game. It's probably what got him killed. But... Tim... I have to hand it to the boy... He wants to be the world's greatest detective. And from wht I've seen so far... he will be someday." _Batman: Hush_ Catwoman: Huntress is gone... Batman: She's better than you think. Better than everyone thinks, including herself. _Batman: Hush_ "I used to be a somebody in this town. Now, everybody has a gimmick. I was going to show them all. And I did." -the Riddler, _Batman: Hush_ "Double-crossed by Two-Face. What is the world coming to?" -Catwoman, _Batman: Hush_ "The man I need to see is Eddie 'The Buck' Buccelli. Of the many mob capos in the city, he's one of the smarter ones. Truly, I believe in a different life he would be a college graduate. Eddie even thickens his accent to sound more like a street tough. He surrounds himself with vicious enforcers, and never shows tolerance for mistakes. I've combed the streets and the usual informants are coming up short. They hear things, but I need confirmation. Eddie's smart. He either knows for certain, or heard from the right people. I will ask him. And he will tell me." _Batman: As the Crow Flies_ Robin: So, what do we do now? Batman: We watch. We wait. Robin: Exciting. I don't have to dress up as a chick again, do I? Batman: Not that I know of. Robin: Cool. _Batman: As the Crow Flies_ Marco: This is a crime family. A syndicate. You're the top dog on the pyramid and we're all the little fish on the bottom rung of the totem pole. Penguin: I understand your point, Marco. Despite the murder of several metaphors to get there. _Batman: As the Crow Flies_ "Master Bruce is a hard one to read. But I think he knows deep in his heart that his world... his dark world needs a breath of life. Color and youth and life. I think he had that for so long with Master Dick. There's something of a void now he's alone again." -Alfred, _Nightwing_ "'This job isn't all flash and color,' Batman had said. 'If you want that join the Justice League instead.'" _Nightwing_ "How does one man protect an entire city? By making sure the shadow he casts is long and wide... so that its reach can embrace - or engulf - all that walk here. So that every man, woman and child in the city of Gotham can feel its touch. if you are good, the shadow's wings are a welcome, protective blanket. If you are bad, you know its touch as a black splinter of fear." _Batman & Poison Ivy: Cast Shadows_ "Yeah? Know what his favorite therapy is? Denial therapy. He won't allow anyone to call me Poison Ivy. Just like no one can call the Joker a joker, or refer to that fat penguin as the Penguin... I mean, look a them! It's absurd. The Joker *is* a joker! Two-Face is *two-faced*! And I'm poison! Ontologically, biologically, quintessentially, irreducibly poison. It's not therapeutic to pretend otherwise - it's deliusional!" _Batman & Poison Ivy: Cast Shadows_ "What do they see in each other's eyes? He sees a woman submerged in ice. Suspended, caught. Her eyes implacable, buried. Deflecting the world and everyone in it. She sees a man leaping. A man who lept off a cliff long ago, when very young - a young man who knew the fall would take years, but if he was very, very lucky - someday he'd find bottom." _Batman & Poison Ivy: Cast Shadows_ "You know, the thing about you heroes... There's an oblivious side to your prowess, and you're blind to it. You're so busy being big shots, you never look back and see the big fat shadows you spill behind you." -Poison Ivy, _Batman & Poison Ivy: Cast Shadows_ "Arkham Asylum. 'Home' for the insane. World renowned... for its rotten decrepit, inhuman conditions. The grand maddening irony of asylums: they tend to drive you insane. Think of the patients as junkyard dogs - if you slam someone in a cage and leave them to stew in their own howls for a few decades - what do you think they'll be like the day you let them out?" _Batman & Poison Ivy: Cast Shadows_ "What does a man want? What does he reach for? Bigger better faster taller quicker stronger better. Does it exceed his grasp, to want so much? Towers, monoliths, empires and men... if too big, all have a tendency to fall. Does man's reach exceed his grasp? Depends on what he reaches for." _Batman & Poison Ivy: Cast Shadows_ Batman: Why the Balloon Buster costume? Smitty: I don't know, seemed as good a disguise as anything for prowling around. Hey, it worked on Scooby-Doo. Batman: No, Smitty, it never worked. _Legends of the Dark Knight Annual #7_ "Batman doesn't need anybody. He's made _that much_ perfectly clear. He's a one-man crime-stopping army, and it's not _his_ fault he's so cool that us lesser beings can't keep up! That's the way it seems from the outside, anyway, but I have to admit, the truth is more complicated. Batman knows he's mortal, and, that one day he won't be here anymore, and he's gonna need people to carry on his fight. I know that 'cause he told me so. Looked me right in the eye and said it out loud. And actually, I kinda wish he hadn't. Told me that, I mean. In some ways, making that quiet confession was the scariest thing I've ever seen him do. In _every_ way, telling me I couldn't cut it was the _meanest_." -Spoiler's war journal, _Batman: the 12 cent Adventure_ "I think I'm starting to sound more like Moriarty than Sherlock Holmes." -Bruce Wayne, _Batman: the Order of Beasts_ "It's Arkham Asylum. Every alarm's gone off up there. Phones and security cameras are down. Whatever problems it causes me, your presence will save lives..." -Gordon, _Batman Adventures_ Batman: If I had any sense, I would've sent you packing with Alfred and Tim. Spoiler: If you had any sense, you wouldn't be dressed like that. _Green Arrow: Quiver_ Montoya: Joker and Harley aren't exactly making a difficult trail to follow. Gordon: They are insane, you know. _Batman Adventures_ "Brave new world, which has such yutzes in it." -the Joker, _Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker_ "I've known Bruce for years. I can't decide if it's the hero in him that drives him - which I respect... or the dark side that puts him in harm's way - trying desperately to make up for the murder of his parents. That I don't respect." -Superman, _Superman/Batman_ "You're sick, Riddler. You shouldn't be out. You're not ready. You may have fooled the doctors and the lawyers, but I know the truth. You may be walking around outside the bars right now - but you're not a free man." -Batman, _Batman Adventures_ "I remember the first time my father was arrested. I didn't know who to hate most - Dad or the cops... or just the whole damn world for letting it happen." -Stephanie/Spoiler/Robin, _Batgirl_ "You believe you can change the way of things, Batman. It is why you are who you are." -the Phantom Stranger, _Justice League Adventures_ [waking up in the Batcave.] Static: Who are you? Alfred: I'm Batman. Static: I don't think so. Alfred: Just once I'd like someone to believe that. _Static Shock_ ("Hard as Nails") [waking up in a hospital bed.] "Where am I? Who's the president? Seriously, I didn't vote, who won?" -Harley, _Batman Adventures_ Mr. Freeze: Just think, Batman... what would you do if you could have your loved one back? Anything, right? Batman: Not anything. Mr. Freeze: I would... _Batman Adventures_ Nightwing: Anyways, why are you so much tougher on her than you are on, say, Two-Face? You always hold out hope that he can be rehabilitated. So why so hard on Catwoman? Batman: Because I expect more from her. Nightwing: Yeah, well - not everyone can live up to your expectations. _Batman Adventures_ [watching Riddler on TV.] Bruce: He's lying. Alfred: You sound certain, Master Bruce. Bruce: Nygma's face is a collection of ticks and twitches that give him away when he's bluffing. Professional gamblers call them "tells." The Riddler might be an expert at trick questions... but he's always been a lousy poker player. _Batman Adventures_ #11 Batman: You still haven't gotten over the puns? Nightwing: Oh, shush. You love it. _Batman Adventures_ #12 "We always referred to that part of the cave as the trophy room. But the truth of it was - it was _my_ trophy room. Over the years, it became a testament to our victories. And to our legacy." -Nightwing, _Batman Adventures_ #12 Robin: You get scared? Nightwing: Sure. Mostly of failing. Sometimes of dying. I'm human. Robin: And Batman? Nightwing: I'm not sure what scares him. Maybe he's driven by his fears. _Nightwing_ [discussing Superman] Robin: ...what's he like? Batman: Lightning. Thunder. He's not human, Dick. Never forget that. _Legends of the DCU_ #6 [about to set off a bomb] Joker: Trust me, kids... it'll be a front-page party. Three... two... Um... two..? Two...? Thug: What's the matter, boss? Joker: Well, this is usually the point where Batsy-man bursts in and spoils my fun... I wonder what's keeping him? _Batman: Gotham Adventures_ Thug: Gee boss, that's the second bigget mackarel you've ever had in your pants. Joker: Hey...! *I* do the jokes around here! I'm illustrating a point about chaos theory. Only ninety minutes without TVs and telephones, and everyone's already huddling outside... Abandoned by the electricity gods, see...? They tiptoe to the streets to reassure each other they're safe and secure in the dark... tee hee. TOO LATE!! [starts hitting people with the fish] NO SAFETY TONIGHT, PAL! CIVILIZATION'S ON HOLD! Tonight, citizens can be beaten with a game fish right out in the open, thanks to me! And what are you going to do about it...?!?! ...CALL A COP?!? Oh! You want to play with me? You wan' to play?!? Say hello to me leetle friend! Chaos theory, boys! _Batman: Gotham Adventures_ "That brand of costumed justice went out with the tommy gun." -Commissioner Barbara Gordon, _Batman Beyond_ "I don't care what anyone says, I'm not wearing the Robin outfit." -Terry _Batman Beyond_ ("Out of the Past") Batman: Lady, you are creeping me out. Bruce: You? I'm the one she kissed. _Batman Beyond_ ("Out of the Past") "If anyone has earned a second chance, it's you." Talia, _Batman Beyond_ ("Out of the Past") "Not every person is afforded the opportunity to begin anew... nor atone for one's sins and misdeeds. Time will tell if destiny can be unwrit... or the slate truly wiped clean." _Gotham Knights_ Bane: You should sleep, old man. I have never rested better than in this house. Alfred: A testament to your unburdened soul, no doubt. Bane: Hah! Your wit is sharp and matchless, old man. You must teach me to be so withering with words. _Gotham Knights_ "Think of it, Batman. To never again walk on a summer's day with a hot wind in your face and a warm hand to hold. Oh, yes, I'd *kill* for that." -Mr. Freeze, _Gotham Adventures_ "Gotham City. This city can do things to people.Change them. I've seen it happen too many times.That's why I'm here. I've seen too many people become monsters. Her name is Madame X. She's threatening to poison the entire city. I don't know why. These people are crazy. It's just what they do. The police won't get here in time. She's got them running all over Gotham. Looks like it's up to me. That's what I do." _Gotham Knights_ "Fear is a teacher, the first one you ever had." -Scarecrow, _Gotham Knights_ "Or what, Master Bruce? You'll dress up like a giant bat and haunt the night for the rest of your life?" -Alfred, _Gotham Knights_ "That's what you have to hold on to. All of us are what we are because we lost something we thought we couldn't live without, and were proven wrong. We can survive without parents and without walking and even without always being able to protect the people we love. But we can't survive without knowing in our bones that we're not like them, not like the ones who stole from us." _Gotham Knights_ Nightwing: Want me to go ask him a few questions? Oracle: I'm ninety percent sure I want you to go start hitting him really hard, but let me get to a hundred first. _Gotham Knights_ "The only thing I hate more than wearing that cape and cowl, and imagining a world without you in it... is watching some else do it." -Nightwing, _Gotham Knights_ "Thing is, I don't know how to reassure you in words. I mean, there are no words. What am I, Bruce? Your trainee? Your soldier? Your 'sidekick'? Your ward? 'Ward.' I hate that word. It stopped having any meaning the minute I turned eighteen, and I was afraid I would, too. Stop having meaning. I mean, for you. So, in the abscence of binding words, I try to show you who I am in action. And I find I can't stop moving." -Nightwing, _Gotham Knights_ "Batman himself knows that he is more than just a man in a mask. He has become a legend, a symbol, a force. He has made his priorities clear to those who would aid him... and allowed them to make their own choices. And he doesn't have time to waste over wondering whether or not this is fair." _Gotham Knights_ Nightwing: Come on, Az - this is the fun part! Azrael: If you say so... _Gotham Knights_ "There's no shame in accepting aid from others... but perhaps there is a responsibility." _Gotham Knights_ "What is it that moves someone to pledge loyalty to someone else? Do we bond over tragedies - or over hope?" _Gotham Knights_ "The more I examine his allies, the more I come to think of Batman as being as much of an enterprise as a single entity." _Gotham Knights_ "I knew if you did exist, you'd be a man with a mission. You're here to protect the city, right? You're paying out a koan, or a debt of sin or love or some such." -Matatoa, _Gotham Knights_ "He's fought every kind of criminal, demonic and extraterrestrial nightmare they could throw at him. Superman once called him the most dangerous man alive, and still the madness tries to claim his city." _Orpheus Rising_ "The last time he felt like this, he met Bane... and almost died." _Orpheus Rising_ "Relationships aren't supposed to be easy. Even I know that, and I'm just a vegetable." -Susan Wayne, Bruce's wife "No loss is acceptable. Take it from me." _Secret Origins of the JLA_ "I hardly knew my parents as people. But suddenyl I knew the world. It was hard and cold and dark and lawless. Its face was fierce and beastial. The only face I had with which to glare back at it... was utterly inadequate." _Secret Origins of the JLA_ "But you don't know fear half as well as it knows you." _Secret Origins of the JLA_ "It's part chemical, fear, and part psychogenic. It's also instinctive. And also something you learn. Something you cultivate... and practice hiding beneath other feelings... like anger." _Secret Origins of the JLA_ "You can conquer fear psychologically. If you're willing to look at it for what it is. Few are. Few ever truly gaze into their fear, their pain. Fewer still embrace it." _Secret Origins of the JLA_ "I don't enjoy fear. But I've learned to respect it." _Secret Origins of the JLA_ "When I'd finally mastered my fear, I went to take another look at the world. No, that's inaccurate. I went out to learn how to be strong enough to face it. To defend it. To gaze into it and accept it for what it was... without flinching." _Secret Origins of the JLA_ "But I still didn't have a face as feral as the one life had shown me. I was stil hiding... still hoping for courage... and counting on luck." _Secret Origins of the JLA_ "Heroes get judged by the villians they tangle with. Like Batman. What a collection of freaks he's got to deal with." -Guy Gardener, _Secret Origins of the JLA_ Commissioner Barbara Gordon: I hear you wrangled yourself a new errand boy. Bruce Wayne: I never wrangled anyone. You all came to me. Commissioner Barbara Gordon: Maybe for once you should try to talk someone out of it. Bruce Wayne: Would it have worked for you? _Batman Beyond_ "It's only once in the whole night that it shows...He's given orders and all the Mutants and S.O.B.s and everybody are gone for a minute... He just sags in the saddle like and old man...then he straightens up and grins at me like it's funny. He can't die..." _The Dark Knight Returns_, Book 4 Robin: Holey rusted metal, Batman! Batman: Huh? Robin: The ground, it's made of metal. And it's full of holes. You know, holey. Batman: Oh. _Batman and Robin_ "He trashed my car, Alfred. Between a couple of guys, that's real personal." "One should always keep abreast of foreign tongues, Robin." -Adam West, _Batman_ Robin: "Nightwing, what are you doing here?" Nightwing: "Oh, just following a path of obsessive behavior instilled in me at an early age." Batman: We don't have to make this difficult. Catwoman: But somehow we always do. Dr. Leslie Thompkins: You seem quieter than usual tonight. Batman: Every year I come here and wonder if it should be the last time, if I should put the past behind me, try to lead a normal life. Dr. Leslie Thompkins: Santayanna says, "Those who forget the past are condemed to repeat it." Batman: He also said a fanatic is someone who redoubles his efforts while losing sight of his goal. "It's going to be one of those nights." -Batman "I decided early that I would never take a life. Right around the time I decided that I wanted to live. It wasn't an arbitrary decision and it was more than moral. It's about identity. As long as you can choose that, choose who you are in the world... you can choose to call yourself sane." -Batman, "Gazing Back," from _Secret Origins of the JLA_ "What father could ever forget his son." -Ra's Al-Ghul Bruce Wayne: I know it must be very difficult. Dick Grayson: If only I could have stopped him! I saw him coming out of the tent! I knew he didn't belong there! Bruce Wayne: I know. You keep thinking, "If only I had done something differently. If only I could have... warned them." But there isn't anything you could have done. There isn't anything either of us could have done. Dick Grayson: Your mom and dad? Does the hurt ever go away? Bruce Wayne: I wish I could say yes. But it will get better in time. For you. That I promise. [Commissioner Gordon awakes from his coma.] Jim Gordon: The bust, went down OK? Batman: Yes. Get some rest now. Jim Gordon: Gotta keep fighting, never stop. What I try to live by. Maybe if I had been younger I could have been like you. Always wanted to be a hero. Batman: You are a hero, Jim. "Batman has learned to expect the unexpected. he knows the world is full of mystery and contradiction... as well as gods and monsters. But can he ever be sure of his own place in this bedlam? Can he ever be completely sure that he's a hero just because he sets out hoping to stop the villians?" _Gotham Knights_ "Sometimes people influence you not so much by what they mean to you - as by what they allow you to mean to them." _Gotham Knights_ Batman: Leave it alone. Nightwing: I can't. You didn't teach me how. _Gotham Knights_ "When you're alone you can order the world into any kind of configuration that makes sense to you. The past is always accessible. Families are always safe. Victims are always innocent. The chief problem with alliances is that caring about someone necessitates acknowledging their reality... and their reality can introduce incongruities that turn your stomach to lead." _Gotham Knights_ "He knows all too well that it is possible to have memories that you literally cannot bear." _Gotham Knights_ "But there are a few people who look at all the good they can achieve in the world... and think of nothing so much as their inherent capacity for evil." _Gotham Knights_ Superman: "How does Batman manage to make his own rules?" Flash: "By being cold and hard to know. You're Superman: you couldn't act like that if you rehearsed." _JLA: American Dreams_ "This madness ends now." _Mask of the Phantasm_ Alfred: Master Bruce, are you alright, sir? Batman: I'm tired, Alfred. Alfred: Well I shouldn't wonder, you've taken no meals today, and I can't recall when you last slept. Batman: A weary body can be dealt with, but a weary spirit, that's something else. Sometimes, old friend, I wonder if I'm really doing any good out there. Alfred: How can you doubt it? The lives you've saved, the criminals you've brought to justice. Batman: I've put out a few fires yes, won a few battles, but the war goes on Alfred, on and on... "I know that gorilla!" -Nightwing "I'm crazy enough to take on Batman, but the IRS? Nooooooooooo way!" -Joker [fighting bears] "You take the brown one, and I'll take... the other brown one." -Nightwing "Archcriminals I can handle. Mothers are something else." -Bruce Wayne, _Batman Beyond_ "Anyone else want their weeds whacked?" -Robin "Vengeance blackens the soul, Bruce. I've always feared that you would become that which you fought against. You walk the edge of that abyss every night, but you haven't fallen in and I thank heaven for that." -Alfred, _Mask of the Phantasm_ "Hey, remember that big charity ball a couple of years ago? I was the clown girl that held the gun on you!" -Harley Quinn "See that he's street pizza! In this town, some flying fool could have caught him!" -The Joker, _World's Finest_ "I meant it when I said I wanted a family that loves me. I just wanted it on my terms." -Poison Ivy [holding a gingerbread Batman cookie] "Hello, Mr. J. I'm Batman! Eat me! Eat me! Eat me!" -Harley Quinn, _World's Finest_ "Mi casa nostra es su casa nostra." -Joker, _Mask of the Phantasm_ Two-Face: Poison Ivy. Poison Ivy: It's been a long time, Harvey. You're still looking halfway decent. Two-Face: Half of me wants to strangle ya. Poison Ivy: And what does the other half want? Two-Face: To hit ya with a truck. Poison Ivy: We used to date. The Joker, The Penguin, Killer Croc: Ah. "You would think Batman would know better. You would think he, of all people, would understand how potentially unsafe it is to be surrounded by people you love. The risk of loss is always too great." _Gotham Knights_ "The line between self-sacrifice and self-destruction is a fine one, even in an ordinary line of work. For a vigilante, the distinction springs chiefly from motive. Do you risk your life to relieve the suffering of others... or do you lay down your life to allay your own?" _Gotham Knights_ "It's a good tonic, altruism. Nothing helps one put problems in perspective like allegiance to a higher cause." _Gotham Knights_ "Batman can't avoid the knowledge of his own personal Catch 22. He knows surrendering his crusade would put him face to face with his own neuroses... and also that prevailing will eventually wear him irrevocably down. but the question becomes whether or now he will know. When he finally loses it, will he know?" _Gotham Knights_ "Maybe it's just that Batman is afraid to die. That's not unforgivable. Not even unusual. But it isn't pain nor afterlife nor potential nonexistence that frightens him, is it? It's the zealous refusal to abandon his mission... and a stubborn unwillingness to test his torn loyalties... which have long been pulled uncomfortably between the living and the dead." _Gotham Knights_ Harley: Why'd you stay with me all day, risking your butt for someone who's never given you nothing but trouble? Batman: I know what it's like to try and rebuild your life. [Gives her back the dress.] I had a bad day once, too." Harley: Nice guys like you shouldn't have bad days. "Maybe his constant doubting of himself is finally the best indication that the Dark Knight is sane. Maybe we don't have to be able to make sense of the world in order to choose our reactions to it. Maybe the best way to absolutely know that our own instincts are trustworthy... is to give up on the notion of absolutes." _Gotham Knights_ "One way or another, it ends tonight." _Mask of the Phantasm_ Bruce: What am I doing, Alfred? This isn't part of the Plan! I must be going nuts! Alfred : If I may be so bold, sir, I'd say quite the opposite. _Mask of the Phantasm_ "It doesn't mean I don't care anymore. I don't want to let you down, honest, but... but it just doesn't hurt so bad anymore. You can understand that, can't you? Look, I can give money to the city -- they can hire more cops. Let someone else take the risk, but it's different now! Please! I need it to be different now. I know I made a promise, but I didn't see this coming. I didn't count on being happy. Please! Tell me that it's okay." -Bruce Wayne, at his parents' grave, _Mask of the Phantasm_ Batman: I should have been there. Robin: You can't be everywhere. Batman: I let him down. Robin: You're being too hard on yourself. Batman: He's a friend. More than a friend. Jim Gordon is the same age my father would have been if he hadn't... Now he's hanging by a thread. If I had gotten there five minutes sooner... Robin: You're only human, you do all one man can do, more than any man is expected to do. Batman: I chose this life. I use the night, I became the night, sooner or later I'll go down. It might be the Joker, or Two-Face, or just some punk who gets lucky. My decision. No regrets. But I can't let anyone else pay for my mistakes. Robin: Jim Gordon's a cop, Bruce. He knows the risks. Batman: How long before I let someone else I care about down? Leslie, Alfred, you? When all is said and done, how much good have I accomplished? They sell t-shirts of me! I've become a cliche! More good for the tourist trade than the streets. Robin: This city would fall apart without you. Batman: Maybe. Maybe not. When you look too long into the abyss, the abyss looks back through you. Maybe it's time for Batman to return to the night that spawned him before anyone else gets hurt. "It has to be who you are." _The Dark Knight Returns_ Alfred: Such rot, sir. Why you're the very model of sanity. Oh by the way, I pressed your tights and put away your exploding gas balls. Bruce Wayne: Thank you, Alfred. _Mask of the Phantasm_ Batman: Do you still follow your dad's orders? Andrea: The way I see it, the only one in this room controlled by his parents is you. _Mask of the Phantasm_ Robin: Lady, you're nuts. Poison Ivy: Well, that's your opinion. "The costume's a bit theatrical, but hey, who am I to talk." -Joker, _Mask of the Phantasm_ "Sweetie, get mommy's bazooka." -Harlequin, _Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker_
Page by: Paul M. M. Jacobus (paul@otd.com)
Back to Quote-O-Rama HQ
Back to my home page