Stan Lee Quotes

Stan Lee delivers bold, comic-book wisdom about power, responsibility and creativity.

27 quotes

1. WITH GREAT POWER THERE MUST ALSO COME - - GREAT RESPONSIBILITY!

2. Excelsior!

3. Face front, true believer!

4. In the early days, I was writing scripts for virtually all the books, and it was very hard to keep all the artists busy; poor little frail me, doing story after story. So I'd be writing a story for Kirby, and Steve Ditko would walk in and say, 'Hey, I need some work now.' And I'd say, 'I can't give it to you now, Steve, I'm finishing Kirby's.' But we couldn't afford to keep Steve waiting, because time is money, so I'd have to say, 'Look Steve, I can't write a script for you now, but here's the plot for the next Spider-Man. Go home and draw anything you want, as long as it's something like this, and I'll put the copy in later.' So I was able to finish Jack's story. Steve in the meantime was drawing another story.....Okay, it started out as a lazy's man's device...but we realized this was absolutely the best way to do a comic.....Don't have the writer say, 'Panel one will be a long shot of Spider-Man walking down the street.' The artist may see it differently; maybe he feels it should be a shot of Spider-Man swinging on his web, or climbing upside-down on the ceiling or something.

5. They are working on The Fantastic Four, The Silver Surfer, Iron Man, Dr. Strange, The Hulk- they're doing a sequel to Spider-Man, a sequel to X-Men, and probably a third sequel to Blade. They still haven't gotten around to Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.- they have to do the Ghost Rider.

6. What did Doctor Doom really want? He wanted to rule the world. Now, think about this. You could walk across the street against a traffic light and get a summons for jaywalking, but you could walk up to a police officer and say 'I want to rule the world,' and there's nothing he can do about it, that is not a crime. Anybody can want to rule the world. So, even though he was the Fantastic Four's greatest menace, in my mind, he was never a criminal!

7. I felt someday I'd write 'The Great American Novel' and I didn't want to use my real name on these silly little comics.

8. If a character had the first initial in both names, I could at least remember one of the names.

9. I have no idea when the Golden Age was, but as far as I'm concerned, wherever I am is the Golden Age!

10. America is made of different races and different religions, but we're all co-travelers on the spaceship Earth and must respect and help each other along the way.

11. I think the way you become a good storyteller is to read a lot of stories and evaluate them in your own mind.

12. I enjoy the fact that we have these mobile comics now, which are sort of a cross between a comic book and an animated cartoon.

13. To tell you the truth, I never thought of myself as much of a success.

14. I am so impressed with people who can really make a big movie, a good movie. The amount of work that goes into it is incredible.

15. That's what everybody tells me. "I would've had a great comic-book collection, but my mother made me throw them away." But when I was growing up, my mother didn't care. As long as I was reading, she didn't care if my room was filled with comics. I could have saved everything. I was just too stupid to do it.

16. I have always tried to have a message, not to be a preacher, but a message that shows it's better to be a good guy than a bad guy, and I try to make it clear that doing the right thing is more attractive than not.

17. I was in the beginning when [comic book superheroes] started, but not anymore. Now I expect it. I've gotten very used to it.

18. I always felt the 'X-Men,' in a subtle way, often touched upon the subject of racism and inequality, and I believe that subject has come up in other titles, too. But we would never pound hard on the subject, which must be handled with care and intelligence.

19. Every kid loves fairy tales, stories of witches and giants and magicians. Then, when you get a little older you can't read fairy tales anymore.

20. Wherever we find news, excitement, mystery and adventure, there, too, we find the newspaper reporter. Always on the alert for something new, ready to risk his very life for a scoop and finding adventure in every corner of the globe.

21. I hated teenagers in comics because they were always sidekicks. And I always felt if I were a superhero, there's no way I'd pal around with some teenager, you know.

22. The experience of reading a printed comic book will never change, but now, thanks to the digital age, there are many different ways to enjoy the same story. Digital comic books, of course, can be interactive in many different ways, allowing the reader to feel like a participant in the story.

23. I'm just somebody who tries to write things that entertain people. And if I can do it in a way that makes them prefer to emulate the good guy than the bad guy, I'm happy.

24. Sooner or later, if man is ever to be worthy of his destiny, we must fill our hearts with tolerance.

25. I never tried to write for other people. I liked people who had problems I might have, because we all have insecurities, regrets. I like heroes who were not 100-percent perfect, who things to take care of.

26. The way I'm doing it is I'm trying to think to myself, "Okay, I have the name Superman, and he's going to be a guy that deserves the name 'Superman.' I'm trying to forget about Krypton, about The Daily Planet what would I do if I was thinking it up?" I can do it any way at all..I can make him an Eskimo midget who's toothless and blind... I can do anything. It's difficult .

27. The only advice anybody can give is, if you wanna be a writer, keep writing. And read all you can, read everything.