STAN LEE QUOTES

American comic book writer & creator (1922- )

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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

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I just figured that Bruce Banner had probably been a friend of Reed Richards, and Reed had given him some elastic trousers. There's an explanation for everything, but you may not be technically advanced enough to follow me on all of this.

STAN LEE

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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.

STAN LEE

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A superhero's catchphrase should be like a really memorable advertising slogan. It sticks in your head and you can't stop humming it. And let's face it, superheroes are just really selling themselves as products.

STAN LEE

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I'm very proud of being a hack. It's why I've lived as long as I have, I think.

STAN LEE

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DC, of course, is trying to catch up to Marvel. More power to them. It's good if everybody does well, but they're certainly starting from a ways back. They have a lot of catching up to do ... Marvel has so many heroes. DC just has Superman, Batman and maybe Wonder Woman. Perhaps they'll use The Flash. Green Lantern wasn't very successful, but we'll see.

STAN LEE

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I think the most important thing is to be busy, because if you have work occupying you, you don't have time to worry about the other serious problems in life.

STAN LEE

Tags: work

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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

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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

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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. Then Don Heck would come over and say, "Hey Stan, I need something to do." I'd say, "Well, I can't write it for you Don, but here's the plot for Iron Man, you go and draw it, and I'll put in the copy later." That way I could keep five, six, ten artists busy; they were drawing, and as they'd bring in the strip, I'd put in the copy. Okay, it started out as a lazy's man's device--or maybe a guy who just didn't have enough time--but we realized this was absolutely the best way to do a comic. Because any artist who really belongs in this field--and of course our artists do--is a storyteller himself. He tells stories with pictures; he has imagination, he knows continuity, he knows how a story should be told.... 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.

STAN LEE

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Kids like comics as much as ever, but a very unusual thing happened. There used to be a very big collectors' market; all of a sudden people were paying high prices for back issues of comics. Houses like Sotheby's would have big auctions, and kids would read that a comic book, which originally cost a dime, was sold for $20,000. There were newspaper articles: "Comic books are a better investment than stocks." So, instead of buying one issue of a magazine, they'd buy twenty. They wouldn't even read them, never took them out of the cellophane. Suddenly a book that sold 200,000 was selling a million or half a million. It was the greatest thing. Then the market crashed.

STAN LEE

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Comic book should be written as one word. So from now on, I want you to remember that. I never want to see the word comicbook written as two words. They are not funny books. They are not comic books, they are comicbooks! Remember that, or incur my wrath.

STAN LEE

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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!

STAN LEE

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There is only one who is all powerful, and his greatest weapon is love.

STAN LEE

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Well, the biggest thing I like about [Spider-Man] is that he seems to be so successful. Everybody else seems to like him. Basically the thing that always intrigued me, what I always wanted to produce was a character that the average reader could identify with. He's not the strongest man in the world. And in his normal identity as Peter Parker, he's not as handsome as Brad Pitt, he's not a great athlete. He's just a regular guy like most guys. And I think that has helped to create the popularity that he has because so many readers can just identify with him.

STAN LEE

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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

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My favorite movie star, far and away, was Errol Flynn. I thought that this guy was the greatest because he always played such heroic roles. He was either the sheriff of Dodge City, or he was Robin Hood, or he was Captain Blood. When I would leave the theater, I'd be about 10 years old I guess ... I would imagine I had a little crooked smile on my face the way Errol Flynn did, and an imaginary sword at my side. I'd be looking around for little girls that might be [attacked] by some bullies.

STAN LEE

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Achilles, without his heel, you wouldn't even know his name today.

STAN LEE

Tags: weakness

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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

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If we don't blow ourselves up, the future will be wonderful.

STAN LEE

Tags: future

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