Brian Azzarello

I'm happy with the way '100 Bullets' ends terribly.

I'm interested in damaged people because we've all been roughed up in one way or another.

Hollywood, they love everything, but they move like molasses. They'll option anything - the worst idea in the world will get optioned just because they want to keep the other person from getting that idea.

What's the trick to writing a good bad guy? Well, for me, it's always been the idea that you pit yourself against authority, you know? I think that's what it takes - and then you can write villainous characters.

When something is well-crafted, you know it, and the enjoyment comes from experiencing it.

When I write, I'm talking to myself constantly to make sure that it sounds OK; it has kind of a nice rhythm and a nice jump to it.

Denny O'Neil did some great things with Joker - I thought Greg Rucka used him really well in 'Gotham Central.'

Basically, I think that Gotham is all of our urban nightmares and fears made into reality. Instead of hearing footsteps from behind you while you walk down the streets, turning around and finding nobody there, there is somebody there.

This thing is such a ripple, the way lives are affected by gentrification. On one hand, yes, you're cleaning up this area, you're making it more livable for people. But you're not saying anything about the people that live there.

Good people struggle against what's imperfect about them. The people that we call 'bad' people embrace that kind of stuff, embrace the darker side.

Noir deals with the disenfranchised: people who can't catch a break under normal circumstances. In noir books, you root for these people, but you know they are going to fail. That's what makes them so compellingly human. I can relate to that kind of stuff.

Man, I think mistakes - that's what makes us distinct human beings. Those imperfections.