Joss Whedon Says He Didn’t Quit Twitter Because of Feminist Backlash

In an interview with BuzzFeed, Joss Whedon explained that it wasn’t backlash from feminists that forced him to quit Twitter, but rather a desire to step back into a more creative space.

“I saw a lot of people say, ‘Well, the social justice warriors destroyed one of their own!’ It’s like, Nope. That didn’t happen,” Whedon said to BuzzFeed. He called the inference that feminism drove him offline “horsesh-t.”

“Believe me, I have been attacked by militant feminists since I got on Twitter. That’s something I’m used to. Every breed of feminism is attacking every other breed, and every subsection of liberalism is always busy attacking another subsection of liberalism, because god forbid they should all band together and actually fight for the cause,” Whedon said.

After the Avengers: Age of Ultron director deleted his account on Monday, many speculated that the online hate Whedon received for how the film depicted the burgeoning relationship between Black Widow and Hulk – as well as some the general character beats in Black Widow’s story arc – were to blame. (“Yep. There is a ‘Tea Party’ equivalent of progressivism/liberalism. And they just chased Joss Whedon off Twitter. Good job, guys. Ugh,” wrote Patton Oswalt on Twitter.) But Whedon said the reasons were far less sinister.

“I just thought, Wait a minute, if I’m going to start writing again, I have to go to the quiet place,” Whedon said about his ultimate exit. “And this is the least quiet place I’ve ever been in my life. … It’s like taking the bar exam at Coachella. It’s like, Um, I really need to concentrate on this! Guys! Can you all just … I have to … It’s super important for my law!”

Whedon’s comments to BuzzFeed about the distracting nature of Twitter echo similar ones the director made to EW’s James Hibberd after quitting the social media platform in 2013.

“The moment I joined, oh my God, what a responsibility. This is enormous work – very fun, but it really started to take up a huge amount of my head space,” Whedon said at the time. “I’m making a movie, I got a responsibility, this job doesn’t pay very well. It’s a fascinating medium, it’s a fascinating social phenomenon. People are like, ‘It’s like a drug.’ Yeah, and it’s like a job. It’s just another art form. Until I have a script I truly believe in or a tweet that’s really remarkable, I can just walk away and get back to the storytelling I need to do.”

For the full interview with Whedon, head to BuzzFeed.

This article originally appeared on EW.com.