Denise Mina Quotes

When I put together a graphic novel, I don't think about literary prose. I think about storytelling.

Comics, in a sense, the style, the images - it's almost like music. They say music is a universal language, but when the eyes behold something, a figure, somebody moving; it's real, and it cannot be denied.

Comics writing is for your artist. It's not for the general reader; it's for the artist. So I love writing scripts for artists.

Comics are words and pictures. You can do anything with words and pictures.

I started out doing music videos and photography, and I always loved writing. Filmmaking seemed to be a good compilation of all these skills in a way that allowed me to tell a story 'greater than the sum of its parts.'

People unacquainted with graphic novels, including journalists, tend to think of 'Watchmen' as a book by Alan Moore that happens to have some illustrations. And that does a disservice to the entire form.

Some of my earliest work was in comics. I tend to think in pictures and always like to write scenes possessing the dynamic you find in comics.

And I've never viewed comics as assignments for the client.

There's a creative freedom to comics, and a fulfillment I get out of panel layouts and storytelling that is hard for me to get anywhere else.

All through my comics career, I was always trying to reinvent the form.

With comics, you've got to develop some kind of shorthand. You can't make every drawing look like a detailed etching. The average reader actually doesn't want all that detail; it interferes with the flow of the reading process.

Doing graphic novels is cool! It's fun! You get to write something, and then see it visually page by page, panel by panel, working with the artist, you get to see it fleshed out.

Graphic novels are such a visually creative world - it's really interesting what they can do in one sketch. Now I'm hooked.

Comics as art. I do comics as comics, and my opportunity to tell stories. Simple. Basic. Let the characters have the excitement, not the package. That's where I come from.

Write comic books if you love comic books so much that you want to write them. Don't write them like movies. Comics can do a lot of things that movies can't do, and vice versa.

Graphic novels are not traditional literature, but that does not mean they are second-rate. Images are a way of writing. When you have the talent to be able to write and to draw, it seems a shame to choose one. I think it's better to do both.

The real power of comics is writing as you draw.

There are great comic books, these great geniuses that manage to tell you a story in one frame, and that became the thing that opened my eyes.

I read comics because of the art.

People underestimate the complexity of comic books.

I've always preferred comics that really rely on visual storytelling. It's what makes comics special. Otherwise, you're better off reading a novel.

The most impactful comics that I've read are the ones where the artists swung for the bleachers and tried to immerse you in their world.

I love writing novels, but there is something deeply invigorating about the comic-book medium.

There are some short stories in R. Crumb comics that are just wonderful and touch me in ways no other comics do.

I would definitely, definitely love to do more comic work. I think, creatively, there's something that's differently rewarding about it than the rewards of filmmaking.