On considering dropping out of the Green Hornet film (August 19, 2004): "Right after Jersey Girl came out and kind of underperformed, I was just like, `I got no business making large-budget movies.` I should always make movies that cost less than 10 million bucks... I just don`t think somebody like me should be in charge of big-budget movies. I`m too interested in dialogue, and dialogue and big budgets just don`t blend very well."

My Father taught me how to be a man – and not by instilling in me a sense of machismo or an agenda of dominance. He taught me that a real man doesn’t take, he gives; he doesn’t use force, he uses logic; doesn’t play the role of trouble-maker, but rather, trouble-shooter; and most importantly, a real man is defined by what’s in his heart, not his pants.

There`s something to be said for failing. It`s not the failure you feel, it`s the failure that people project when something disappoints. You`re back to ground zero, where there`s no expectations, and that`s where I like to be. People like to set the bar high. I like to put the bar on the ground and barely step over it. I like to keep the expectations really low. After something like `Mallrats` or `Jersey Girl,` the expectations are in the toilet. People are like, `He`s over, he`s done.` So it`s easier to be, like, `Ta-da, I`m not.` It`s a much more comfortable place to work from. When you have an escalating career, and every time you have to outdo yourself, I couldn`t handle that kind of pressure. But having to outdo `Jersey Girl`? Not very difficult.

The Jay character is kind of based on who Jason was when he was about 14 years old. In the movies he`s a bit more well spoken than he was at that age. Silent Bob - there is no affiliation to myself. I needed a guy to stand next to Jay and not say much, being that Jason was going to be saying a lot. - on resemblances between real life and his characters

Stoners are cute; junkies are sad.

[on the hoopla over homosexual slurs in "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back"] "Gay or straight has never been a big issue with me. Sex is sex, as far as I`m concerned. Some cats dig on the opposite gender, and some cats dig on their own. Sexual identity will always be as mystifying as why `The Dukes of Hazzard` was once the number one television show in our country: there`s no point in getting bent out of shape about it; it just IS. Some cats will always gravitate toward Daisy Duke, and some will always pine over Boss Hogg."

My Father taught me to weigh my words carefully, and speak up only when I had something insightful to add to the proceedings, or something really funny to say. He also taught me that if I couldn’t be that kind of guy in real life, that I could earn a healthy living pretending to be that guy in the movies – particularly when paired up with a long haired stoner.

It wasn`t the first comic I ever actually READ, but the first comic I remember slapping down hard-earned money for was a `Superman Family` Annual in which the first story featured a married Lois and Superman waking up on a cloud. I remember being oddly aroused by the whole thing. I mean, the implication was that these two were fucking.

More often than not, a hero’s most epic battle is the one you never see; it’s the battle that goes on within him or herself.

Each flick I`ve done is kind of a snapshot of where I was in my life when I wrote it; `Clerks II` really speaks to where I am in life at the moment. You don`t have to be an analyst to look at the movie and go, `The Quick Stop means a little more than the Quick Stop, and Florida represents something more than just going to Florida.` That`s kind of where I am. There`s definitely something bittersweet about arriving at `Clerks II.`

I was a fan of the Daredevil and Green Arrow characters, so it seemed logical to write them. Now I`m kind of interested in taking obscure characters and seeing if we can turn them into top ten books. I mean, DD and GA had somewhat built-in audiences, so there was a basis to work from. But could we take a Doctor Strange book and put that in the top ten? That`d be a fun challenge.

I once wrote a horror screenplay for my friend Vincent to make when he was in high school that was close to Bergman`s The Seventh Seal". Very psychological horror stuff. Alot of the religious elements in the script ended up in Dogma.

Now you`ve gotta spend two thousand bucks to stay at my house. And for five, I`ll let you photograph my wife in the shower.

[in response to Tim Burton claiming he doesn`t read comics] Well that would explain Batman.

I wasn`t disappointed by The Phantom Menace. I know a lot of people were but I was one of those cats who wasn`t. You go in with low expectations, or not expecting it to bring you right back to the days of your youth, but it`s kind of a fun movie.

They`re like, `I can`t believe Kevin Smith gets into comics, and all he can do is a superhero comic.` Well, that`s what I want to do.