Watchmen Quotes

“Nite Owl II:But the country's disintegrating. What's happened to America? What's happened to the American dream?

The Comedian:It came true. You're lookin' at it.”
― Alan Moore, Watchmen

“Who makes the world? Perhaps the world is not made. Perhaps nothing is made. Perhaps it simply is, has been, will always be there…a clock without a craftsman.”
― Alan Moore, Watchmen

“I'm 65 years old. Everyday the future looks a little bit darker. But the past, even the grimy parts of it, well, it just keeps on getting brighter all the time.”
― Alan Moore, Watchmen

“They claim their labours are to build a heaven yet their heaven is populated with horrors. Perhaps the world is not made. Perhaps nothing is made. A clock without a craftsman. It's too late. Always has been, always will be…too late.”
― Alan Moore, Watchmen

“Does the human heart know chasms so abysmal?”
― Alan Moore, Watchmen

“Please! Don't all leave. Somebody has to do it, don't you see? Somebody has to save the world...”
― Alan Moore, Watchmen

“... and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout: 'Save us!'. And I'll look down and whisper: 'No.”
― Alan Moore, Watchmen

“I wanted to kind of make this like, 'Yeah, this is what Batman would be in the real world'. But I had forgotten that actually to a lot of comic fans, that smelling, not having a girlfriend—these are actually kind of heroic! So actually, sort of, Rorschach became the most popular character inWatchmen.I meant him to be a bad example. But I have people come up to me in the street saying, "I am Rorschach! That is my story!' And I'll be thinking: 'Yeah, great, can you just keep away from me, never come anywhere near me again as long as I live'?”
― Alan Moore

“I flip through the book, one of his top three, without question, to the last horrifying chapter: ‘A Stronger Loving World'. To the only panel he's circled. Oscar-who never defaced a book in his life-circled one panel three times in the same emphatic pen he used to write his last letters home. The panel where Adrian Veidt and Dr. Manhattan are having their last convo. After the mutant brain has destroyed New York City; after Dr. Manhattan has murdered Rorschach; after Veidt's plan has succeeded in ‘saving the world'.

Veidt says: ‘I did the right thing, didn't I? It all worked out in the end'. And Manhattan, before fading from our Universe, replies: ‘In the end? Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends'.”
― Junot Díaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

“Rorshach's journal. October 16, 1985. Been waiting in Moloch's fridge for three hours. Ate two raw eggs and packet of honey mustard sauce. Just realized I am sitting on baking soda. Freezing ass off. Really have to take leak.”
― Alan Moore

“Benny Anger:What's up, doc?

Doc Manhattan:"Up" is a relative concept; it has no intrinsic value.”
― Alan Moore, Watchmen

“The lady who works in the grocery store at the corner of my block is called Denise, and she's one of America's great unpublished novelists. Over the years she's written forty-two romantic novels, none of which have ever reached the bookstores. I, however, have been fortunate enough to hear the plots of the last twenty-seven of these recounted in installments by the authoress herself every time I drop by the store for a jar of coffee or can of beans, and my respect for Denise's literary prowess knows no bounds. So, naturally enough, when I found myself faced with the daunting task of actually starting the book you now hold in your hands, it was Denise I turned to for advice.”
― Dave Gibbons, Watchmen

“There's no such thing as quitting. Just sometimes there's a longer pause between relapses, right?”
― Alan Moore

“Crazed with helplessness, I cursed God and wept, wondering if He wept also. But then, what use are His tears, if His help was denied me?”
― Alan Moore, Watchmen

“I believe he's a man of great integrity, but he seems to see the world in very black and white. Manichean terms. I personally believe that to be an intellectual limitation.”
― Alan Moore, Watchmen

“There were no more heroes. Kennedy was dead, shot by an assassin in Dallas. Batman and Robin were dead... Superman was missing...”
― Robert Mayer

“Rorschach: You know we can't let you do that

Adrian Veidt: Do? Do what Rorschach?
I'm not a comic book villain. Do you seriously think I would explain my master stroke to you if there were even the slightest possibility you could affect the outcome? I triggered it 35 minutes ago.”
― Alan Moore, Watchmen

“I no longer wish to look at dead things.”
― Alan Moore, Watchmen

“Truly, life is hell and death's rough hand our only deliverance.”
― Alan Moore, Watchmen

“Crazed with helplessness, I cursed God and wept, wondering if he wept also.”
― Alan Moore, Watchmen

“The horror is this: In the end, it is simply a picture of empty meaningless blackness. We are alone. There is nothing else.”
― Alan Moore

“Whether tales are told by the light of a campfire or by the glow of a screen, the prime decision for the teller has always been what to reveal and what to withhold. Whether in alone or with images, the narrator should be clear about what is to be shown and what is to be hidden.”
― Dave Gibbons

“Laurie:
Her pain, her fears, her whole life, y' know? I mean, ordinary people, right? All the things that happen to them... doesn't that move you more than a bunch of rubble?”
― Alan Moore, Watchmen

“Rich can live better than poor but they cannot live without poor.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words

“My mind is confused, I shudder in panic. My night of pleasure has turned into terror. Setting the table to let the watchmen watch, eating and drinking, “Arise, officers, anoint the shield.” For thus said my Lord to me: Go, station the lookout, and let him tell what he sees. He will see a pair of horsemen...and he will call out like a lion. My lord, I stand on the lookout constantly during the day, and I am stationed at my post all the nights. Behold, it is coming: a chariot with a man, a pair of horsemen. Each says loudly, “It has fallen! Babylonia has fallen!”
― Seth Rogovoy, Bob Dylan: Prophet, Mystic, Poet

“I am tired of this world; these people. I am tired of being caught in the tangle of their lives.”
― Doctor Manhattan

“And I'm up while the dawn is breaking, even though my heart is aching. I should be drinking a toast to absent friends instead of these comedians.”
― Elvis Costello, Elvis Costello: A Singing Dictionary