War & Peace Quote by Garth Ennis

Ennis is doing a neat bit of expectation management here: he refuses the easy narrative that “serious” equals “quiet,” and in doing so he protects his brand while still signaling a pivot. Coming from a writer best known for maximalist violence and pitch-black comedy, “not a quieter side” reads like a preemptive defense against fans who equate maturity with mellowness. He’s saying: don’t mistake a change in aim for a change in volume.

The specific titles he names do the heavy lifting. Unknown Soldier and Pride and Joy aren’t “soft” books; they’re moral-pressure cookers. They trade the catharsis of mayhem for the discomfort of consequence, asking the reader to sit with war’s psychic debris, compromised heroism, and the ways masculinity gets manufactured under stress. “Serious” here means oriented toward aftermath rather than spectacle, toward responsibility rather than transgression for its own sake.

The phrasing “I suppose” and “more of a” also matters. It’s modest, even slightly guarded, as if Ennis is wary of sounding self-congratulatory about depth. That hedging is itself a kind of credibility play: he’s not declaring a rebirth, he’s admitting a curiosity. “Recently” puts it in motion, suggesting an evolving appetite - maybe even a fatigue with shock as a default engine.

Subtext: Ennis wants permission to expand without being domesticated. He’s claiming a different register, not a different identity, and he’s inviting readers to follow him into work where the punchline is replaced by the bill coming due.