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Stan Lee Quotes

Total quotes: 17
“The more you read, the better you’re going to become as a storyteller.”
— Stan Lee, Stan Lee On Comics
Tagged: Reading, Writing, Storytelling, Best Reading Quotes
“If I were dead and could come back to life, I wouldn't go around trying to kill people. I'd be saying, 'Wow! I'm the luckiest guy in the world. Isn't this terrific? Hello, you wonderful person. Let's go out and have fun.'”
— Stan Lee
Tagged: Comic Books, Resurrection, Luck
“For me, to enjoy what I was writing, I needed a superhero story as realistic as I could make it.”
— Stan Lee, Stan Lee: Interview with the creator
Tagged: Creating Superhero Narratives
“Most people say, ‘I can’t wait to retire so I can play golf,’ or go yachting or whatever they do. Well, if I was playing golf, I would want that to finish so I could go and dream up a new TV show.”
— Stan Lee
Tagged: Retirement, Golfing, TV Writing
“I wanted them to be diverse. The whole underlying principle of the X-Men was to try to be an anti-bigotry story to show there’s good in every person.”
— Stan Lee, Stan Lee Created X-Men As Anti-Bigotry Story
Tagged: Diversity, X-Men, Anti-Bigotry
“You know, my motto is 'Excelsior.' That's an old word that means 'upward and onward to greater glory.' It's on the seal of the state of New York. Keep moving forward, and if it's time to go, it's time. Nothing lasts forever.”
— Stan Lee, The Playboy Interview: Stan Lee on Superheroes, Marvel and Being Just Another Pretty Face
Tagged: Excelsior, glory, Onward and Upward
“Zombies are puzzling to me. They're all the rage now, but I never understood them. Think about it: If I were dead and could come back to life, I wouldn't go around trying to kill people. I'd be saying, 'Wow! I'm the luckiest guy in the world. Isn't this terrific?'”
— Stan Lee, The Playboy Interview: Stan Lee on Superheroes, Marvel and Being Just Another Pretty Face
Tagged: zombies
“If Shakespeare and Michelangelo were alive today, and if they decided to collaborate on a comic, Shakespeare would write the script and Michelangelo would draw it. How could anybody say that this wouldn’t be as worthwhile an art form as anything on Earth?”
— Stan Lee
Tagged: shakespeare, Michelangelo, Comic Books
“To me you can wrap all of Judaism up in one sentence, and that is, 'Do not do unto others...' All I tried to do in my stories was show that there's some innate goodness in the human condition. And there's always going to be evil; we should always be fighting evil.”
— Stan Lee
Tagged: Judaism, Jews, Good, Evil
“So you see, comic books to me are fairy tales for grown-ups. Iron Man, the Avengers, Spider-Man and all the rest are popular for the same reason 'Jack and the Beanstalk' is still popular after a million years. They're good stories about characters that are like us but also larger than us. That's the end of my philosophy lesson. It should be carved in stone.”
— Stan Lee
Tagged: Comic Books, Avengers, Iron Man, Jack and the Beanstalk
“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
Tagged: Hero, Well-Being, Superhero, do the right thing
“Let’s lay it right on the line. Bigotry and racism are among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today. But, unlike a team of costumed super-villains, they can’t be halted with a punch in the snoot, or a zap from a ray gun. The only way to destroy them is to expose them – to reveal them for the insidious evils they really are.”
— Stan Lee, 5 Times Stan Lee Shut Down Racism in Marvel Comics
Tagged: racism, bigotry, Evil
“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, Doctor Doom- Wikipedia
Tagged: Doctor Doom, Jaywalking, Fantastic Four
“I hardly ever smoked a cigarette. I bought these thin cheroots because you didn't have to inhale. I would puff on them, but I eventually gave them up because I was burning holes in my sweaters. People read into the fact that I called the character Mary Jane, but honestly, I had no idea it was a nickname for marijuana. I never understood why people take drugs. They're habit forming, and they can kill you. I didn't need anything to pep me up or make me feel more creative, and I didn't need them to help me with women.”
— Stan Lee
Tagged: Comic Books, Marijuana, Cigarettes, Mary Jane, Drugs
“Everybody has Doctor Doom misunderstood. Everybody thinks he's a criminal, but all he wants is to rule the world. Now, if you really think about it objectively, you could walk up to a policeman, and you could say, 'Excuse me, officer, I want to tell you something: I want to rule the world.' He can't arrest you; it's not a crime to want to rule the world. So [...] it's unfair that he's considered a villain, because he just wants to rule the world. Then maybe he could do a better job of it. So I'm very interested in Doctor Doom, and I'd like to clear his name.”
— Stan Lee, Stan Lee- Interviewed by 14 Year Old KJ Ricci
Tagged: Doctor Doom, criminal, rule the world, villain
“First, I had to come up with an origin. How does this group get their superpowers? Well, the Fantastic Four had been clobbered by cosmic rays. The Hulk was hit with gamma rays. Incidentally, I had no idea what cosmic rays or gamma rays were, but they sounded good. And they were the only rays I knew. I had run out of rays, so what the hell was I going to do for this new group? I took the cowardly way out and said they were born that way; they're mutants. In fact, I called them the Mutants. Martin hated the name, so we changed it to the X-Men. At a certain point, we had every variety of superhero with every possible origin tale and power.”
— Stan Lee
Tagged: Comic Books, Fantastic Four, Incredible Hulk, Superheroes
“You have to understand that growing up during the Depression, I saw my parents struggling to pay the rent. My father was always unemployed, and when he did have a job, he was a dress cutter. Not very much money there. I was happy enough to get a nice paycheck and be treated well. I always got the highest rate; whatever Martin paid another writer, I got at least that much. It was a very good job. I was able to buy a house on Long Island. I never dreamed I should have $100 million or $250 million or whatever that crazy number is. All I know is I created a lot of characters and enjoyed the work I did.”
— Stan Lee
Tagged: Comic Books, Great Depression, Long Island, Wealth, Humble Beginnings
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