Timothy Miller quotes:

I got into comics on John Byrne's run of the X-Men and the Dark Phoenix Saga. I got in around X-Men 95, right when it turned to the new X-Men. So that whole family, all those characters are kind of my favorite characters, just the X-Men world.

Peter Parker has superpowers, but he still has trouble making rent every month. I identify with that in a way that I don't with, like, Superman, for instance. He's just less interesting because he's too perfect.

There's the larger shiny Marvel universe where everybody has new gear and it's all made of chrome and leather. And then there's Deadpool. I think the world that he explores is a much seedier, everyday sort of ordinary type world. But he still lives in that universe. It still has to sit next to all these other films.

Prada makes really nice bags and then somebody in China makes knockoffs. This is the knockoff version of the mutant world. You have Weapon X. you have government spending millions of dollars to make it, and then you have these guys who are making thugs out of people that they pull off the street, or who are damaged, or who have found themselves in terrible positions for some reason.

I mean Dark Phoenix series, the way it was done, they didn't do it justice in the past movies, in my personal opinion. I just like the X-Men universe.

I think actors, they maybe want more approval than I'm used to giving. Everybody does. Everybody needs a hug you know, all the time. I'm not very good at that. I could get better at that.

Gratitude is the intention to count-your-blessings every day, every minute, while avoiding, whenever possible, the belief that you need or deserve different circumstances.

Compassion is the intention to see each human being as no better or worse than yourself, neither more nor less important, and as fundamentally similar to yourself.

Honestly, the most uncomfortable thing for me is my level of incompetence is uncomfortable.

I buy my Avengers tickets. But I think people are going to really get into seeing this other side of the world.

I'm friends with [David] Fincher. [James] Cameron gives me advice. I know a fair amount of directors who have been through it, and they all felt pretty confident that I would be fine when I got my shot. So their confidence made me feel confident.

Marvel does a great job of making their characters human.

Once you get cocky that's when you start to, A, turn into an asshole to everybody and, B, make mistakes because you stop listening to people or they stop telling you because you're a cocky asshole. So I'm going to try and eat my humble pie every morning for breakfast and just hope that it turns out OK.

I function better in an atmosphere of inner insecurity and fear.

I don't want to make a movie for 100,000 fans that nobody else in the world sees, because I don't think that's good for the character.

As a first time director it's interesting, but not all that different from what I did before. A lot of parts of this job seem to be very similar to running a big company.

Attention is the intention to live without reservation in the here-and-now.

Avengers was cool. I liked it. But I feel like we haven't seen this side of the superhero universe. So I think fans want to see it, too. If everything is perfect and shiny and everybody has Quinjets and mansions, it just gets a little... I don't know. I'm ready for something different.

Being an animator, and I've directed tons of mo-cap, which really is about how do characters move through space.

I like the little chess match of how people move through space. I'm not comparing myself to Michelangelo with this analogy, but he said when he sculpts it's like finding the sculpture within. It feels that way when you are with actors, too. There's a natural way to do this with a natural language that flows and feels like real people talking. And you've just got to find it. So I enjoy that part of the process.

I think if you do what I want to do creatively, it will also make money for you.

I think people moving through space and the way they say lines, it's a puzzle to be solved every time. But there's a right way to do it that feels natural. And it's just kind of finding that right thing.

I'm definitely not afraid to be wrong.

I'm not afraid to make decisions. One of my friends said... we were talking about movies. It's really just a series of decisions you make. They said, "Tim Miller: frequently wrong, but never in doubt." I don't know that I'm making the right ones, but I'm not afraid to make them. That keeps the train moving forward.

There's a little burst of creativity being director followed by lots and lots of meetings and talking to people and more meetings. It's scary. And I can't believe anybody actually lets me do it. But it's going well so far.

To be on set every day with a whole bunch of people that know their job and my job a lot better than I do and I'm supposed to tell them what to do, that's very uncomfortable and awkward.

You can resent your bald spot or be glad you have a head

You'd think I'd be more comfortable with the action, but actually I'm more comfortable with the drama. I mean you get more instant feedback on what you are seeing and you know if it's working or it's not working.