We figured the audience would want good stories, great art, wonderful characters, people you could fall in love with that we would immediately put through hell.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of engaging storytelling and character development, even if it leads to challenging situations for the characters.
Chris Claremont's quote suggests that audiences crave compelling narratives that feature well-crafted characters and artistic expression. He recognizes that creating meaningful connections with characters often involves putting them through difficult experiences, thereby enhancing the emotional depth and richness of the story.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about character development in creative writing classes.
People try to pigeonhole comics by saying they're just for kids. So is The Odyssey. So is the Labors of Hercules, the story of Fa Mulan. The advantage of those stories over the contemporary ones is that they've had 2,000 years of editing. All the crap has been weeded out over time.
The key isn't winning -- or losing, it's making the attempt. I may never be what I ought to be, want to be -- but how will I know unless I try? Sure, it's scary, but what's the alternative? Stagnation - A safer, more terrible form of death. Not of the body, but of the spirit. An animal knows what it is, and accepts it. A man may know what he is -- but he questions. He dreams. He strives. Changes. Grows.
Creative life should be more than preaching to the converted, more than going for a core audience of 100,000 people. It should be taking risks, challenging the readership and having enough faith in one's own talent and craft to take readers on that ride.
X-Men has always been about finding your place in a society that doesn't want you.
My desire as a storyteller is to always catch the readers off guard; to give them something they aren't expecting, and take them in a direction that is satisfying in the here and non.
Comics deal with fundamental archetypes. We've been called the myth-makers of the modern age.
I believe that music is connected by human passions and curiosities rather than by marketing strategies.
I had no proof that I had the stuff to be an artist, though I hungered to be one.
We have that illusion that we are 'deciding' what to make a character do, in order to 'convey our message' or something like that. But, at least in my experience, you are often more like a river-rafting guide who's been paid a bonus to purposely steer your clients into the roughest possible water.
What makes my approach special is that I do different things. I do jazz, blues, country music and so forth. I do them all, like a good utility man.
I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.
Human beings love poetry. They don't even know it sometimes... whether they're the songs of Bono, or the songs of Justin Bieber... they're listening to poetry.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.