Marjorie Liu

Growing up as Chinese-American, as someone who experienced racism, questions of 'otherness' are always at the forefront of my mind.

I'm really bothered by questions of humanity, questions of war, questions of slavery.

'Monstress' has been hard because I want to keep writing longer, but I can't.

To all the young kids of color - and not so young - people who want to use their voices, who are thinking, 'This seems difficult because I don't see myself out there,' I tell you, you must be persistent because we need you. We need you so, so badly.

The thing about Gambit is that he's a man who knows how to adapt to survive. He plays things by ear, depending on the situation, and never feels obligated to follow the rules, because the only rules that matter are his own sense of honor. Ultimately, that sense of honor includes 'doing no harm' - at least, not to the innocent.

Superheroes are the best of us. Never mind all those powers or the crazy costumes. The heart of a superhero is meant to inspire.

I had my dreams, and even though everyone told me that they weren't practical, I knew in my heart that this is what I had to do. Even if it ended up being a failure, I had to make the attempt.

Every single girl, whether we want to recognize it or not, is a warrior.

Timing is irrelevant when it comes to desire.

At his heart, Gambit is a good man who believes in taking care of his friends, and his friends are what's most important to him. People are his home. He will do anything for those who matter to him.

If you tell people what everything is before they have a chance to experience it, then I feel like it's a much different experience.

People either fall into two camps, where they're pro-fanfic, or they're anti-fanfic. I would not have had the skills to write and publish my first novel if I hadn't been writing fanfic.

I'm a writer and a feminist of color, and I've written complex, powerful women for my entire career. I'm just one voice, but there are many others like me.

If men disappeared tomorrow, we'd still be having the abortion debate. If men disappeared tomorrow, there would still be racism and conflicts over religion.

As a writer - and a romance novelist, no less - I've always found it a bit odd when characters in comic books remain in relationship limbo for years at a time.

I think that comic books have appealed to female readers for years.

I love writing comics too much.

As creators and as readers, we need to always be pushing it - by looking for the books, looking for the artists and people and stories to support what we feel to be a better representation of all women. Of real women.

A novel is 400 pages; it's an endurance race. There's no artist, so I have to describe everything. It's all prose. Whereas with comics, I can rely on the artist. It's really wonderful to have that collaboration and to not always feel the burden of describing everything myself and also just to have someone who can paint the world.

Individual writers can certainly make a difference, but they are working within a system, an institution, that still holds tremendous power over whose voices are heard and whose voices are rewarded.