STAN LEE QUOTES
American comic book writer & creator (1922- )
Face front, true believers!
STAN LEE
often-used line on "Stan Lee's Soapbox" editorial pages
For the first week, I stood in front of that little thing on the sidewalk and wanted to punch anybody that stepped on it.
STAN LEE
about his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Fan Expo, June 5, 2016
There is only one who is all powerful, and his greatest weapon is love.
STAN LEE
Silver Surfer
It never occurred to us to save any of those things. We never thought they'd have any value later on. We worked in a very small office, and the printer would send back all the original pages of artwork, but we had no place to put them. So when we ordered food, we told the delivery guy, "Hey, would you mind taking these pages and dropping them in the trash on the way out?"
STAN LEE
"Spidey Bites: Stan Lee's Secret for Saving Spider-Man the Musical?", Vanity Fair, March 10, 2011
I'm a frustrated actor. My ... goal is to beat Alfred Hitchcock in the number of cameos. I'm going to try to break his record.
STAN LEE
interview, February 6, 2006
We had bought a lot of strips that I didn't think were really all that good, but I paid the artists and writers for them anyway, and I kinda hid them in the closet! And Martin found them and I think he wasn't too happy. If I wasn't satisfied with the work, I wasn't supposed to have paid, but I was never sure it was really the artist's or the writer's fault. But when the job was finished I didn't think that it was anything that I wanted to use. I felt that we could use it in inventory--put it out in other books. Martin, probably rightly so, was a little annoyed because it was his money I was spending.
STAN LEE
"Stan the Man and Roy the Boy: A Conversation between Stan Lee and Roy Thomas", Comic Book Artist, summer 1998
I'm proud of everything that was done that was successful. I did the hiring and the firing and I'm proud of the fact that we were able to hire people as talented as the artists that we had, like Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko and Gene Colan and John Romita and Gil Kane. I'm proud of the fact that I worked with them and I like to think that we brought out the best of these artists and writers. It was a great time. I look back at that time when Marvel was starting I think I couldn't have been with a better group of people.
STAN LEE
Denver Post Online, May 23, 2013
The only time I go on the set is when I have a cameo to do in the picture. I go to the set and I do my little cameo and I meet all the people. It's a great way to spend the day. And then I go back to my own world.
STAN LEE
"Stan Lee: From Marvel Comics Genius to Purveyor of Wonder with POW!", PR, March 13, 2006
Achilles, without his heel, you wouldn't even know his name today.
STAN LEE
"Stan Lee: From Marvel Comics Genius to Purveyor of Wonder with POW!", PR, March 13, 2006
I used to be embarrassed because I was just a comic-book writer while other people were building bridges or going on to medical careers. And then I began to realize: entertainment is one of the most important things in people's lives. Without it they might go off the deep end. I feel that if you're able to entertain people, you're doing a good thing.
STAN LEE
The Washington Post, July 23, 2010
It's geeks who really make or break a TV show or movie or videogame.
STAN LEE
The Washington Post, July 23, 2010
First I gave it to Jack Kirby to do, but Jack always drew these very heroic characters, like Captain America. I said to him, "You know Jack, I want this fellow Peter Parker, I want him to be just an average teenager. Don't let him look like your typical muscular superhero." I guess Jack was so used to drawing those kinds of people, that after he drew a page or two I looked at it and I said, "No, that's not right." So I said, "Forget it Jack. I'll give it to another artist." And Jack didn't care; he had a lot of other things to do, and we didn't realize this was going to become such a big script. So I gave it to Steve Ditko, who tended to draw things a little more realistically and more down to earth. And he did it, and I really don't interfere much in what the costume will look like. Steve pretty much invented the [Spider-Man] costume himself.
STAN LEE
"Stan Lee: From Marvel Comics Genius to Purveyor of Wonder with POW!", PR, March 13, 2006
Jack [Kirby] and Joe [Simon] wrote and drew the stories themselves in the beginning and I was just, like, the office boy. But after a while they had more writing than they could handle and I was the only guy around, so they said, "Hey Stan, you think you can write this?" When you're seventeen years old, what do you know? I said, "Sure, I can do it!" And that was it.
STAN LEE
"Stan Lee: From Marvel Comics Genius to Purveyor of Wonder with POW!", PR, March 13, 2006
It's the fact that fans still care. I like all the comics conventions: The smaller ones are easier, the bigger ones are exciting.... Each one I say: Never again. But they're all great.... These things are important because they keep the fans' interest alive in comics. They keep the fans reading and their imaginations stimulated.
STAN LEE
The Washington Post, July 23, 2010
Once, I'd written a Western story, and one of the panels was just a hand holding a six-shooter, and there was a puff of smoke coming out of the barrel, and a straight horizontal line, indicating the trajectory of the bullet. So that page was sent back to me from the Code office, saying that the particular panel was too violent. I asked them what they meant, and they told me--I swear--"The puff of smoke is too big." Well, of course. So I had the artist make the smoke a little smaller, and the youth of America was saved.
STAN LEE
"Spidey Bites: Stan Lee's Secret for Saving Spider-Man the Musical?", Vanity Fair, March 10, 2011
I don't really see a need to retire as long as I am having fun.
STAN LEE
interview, Feb. 6, 2006
Well, I guess we were looking for something to hook some new readers. Also, I think boredom had a little to do with it. We had been turning out books for about twenty years. Same old type all the time ... so I figured, let's try something a little more offbeat. Let's try to ... I think the big policy was to avoid the clichés. For example in the Fantastic Four, the first cliché was: all superheroes wore costumes. We soon learned that was a mistake because, much as the readers like offbeat things, there are certain basics that we must have, and apparently superhero fans do demand costumes as we learned in the subsequent mail.
STAN LEE
Castle of Frankenstein, no. 12, 1968
Some artists, such as Jack Kirby, need no plot at all. I mean I'll just say to Jack, "Let's let the next villain be Dr. Doom" ... or I may not even say that. He may tell me. And then he goes home and does it. He's so good at plots, I'm sure he's a thousand times better than I. He just makes up the plots for these stories. All I do is a little editing ... I may tell him that he's gone too far in one direction or another. Of course, occasionally I'll give him a plot, but we're practically both the writers on the things.
STAN LEE
Castle of Frankenstein, no. 12, 1968
Never speak harshly of your enemy -- when you can kick 'im in the shins instead!
STAN LEE
"Stan Lee's Soapbox", Conan the Barbarian #55, October 1975
Another definition of a hero is someone who is concerned about other people's well-being, and will go out of his or her way to help them -- even if there is no chance of a reward. That person who helps others simply because it should or must be done, and because it is the right thing to do, is indeed without a doubt, a real superhero.
STAN LEE
Cyberspacers