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Everybody Wants To Feel That You're Writing To A Certain Demographic Because That's Good Business, But I've Never Done That ... I Tried To Write Stories That Would Interest Me. I'd Say, What Would I Like To Read?... I Don't Think You Can Do Your Best Work If You're Writing For Somebody Else, Because You Never Know What That Somebody Else Really Thinks Or Wants.

-Stan Lee

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Everybody Wants To Feel

Stan Lee

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Everybody Wants To Feel That You're Writing To A Certain Demographic Because That's Good Business, But I've Never Done That ... I Tried To Write Stories That Would Interest Me. I'd Say, What Would I Like To Read?... I Don't Think You Can Do Your Best Work If You're Writing For Somebody Else, Because You Never Know What That Somebody Else Really Thinks Or Wants.

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I Don't Expect Every Movie To Be Done Exactly The Way I Would Have Done It.

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.

I Thought It Would Be Fun To Take The Kind Of Character That Nobody Would Like, None Of Our Readers Would Like, And Shove Him Down Their Throats And Make Them Like Him.

Quality. That's The First Word, The One Word That Comes To Mind When I Think Of The Books Published By Abrams. In A World Where So Many Companies Are Willing To Cut Corners, To Do Things The Easy Way In Order To Enhance The Bottom Line, It's Gratifying To Know That There's One Company That Obviously Takes Such Pride In Its Finished Product, One Company That Can Always Be Counted On To Design And Produce A Book That Is, Itself, As Much A Work Of Art As The Illustrations On Its Pages.

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.

I'm Used To Doing Comic Books, Where Every Month There's A New Comic Book! I Find That The Movie Business Is Not Quite The Same. It Doesn't Move Quite As Fast.

Comic Books Are Just A Way To Show A Story. Then There Are The Movies, And Television And Exhibits Like This That Take The Stories And Make Them Seem So Realistic. In The Comic Book, You're Just Reading A Story - Hopefully A Good, Exciting Story That Whets Your Appetite For All Of This Stuff To Come.

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.

I Have To Force Myself To Get Angry. But I Want To Show The World That There's Another Side To Me, That I Am Capable Of Deep, Deep Anger And Fury. They Better Watch Out For How I'm Treated.

Everybody Wants To Feel That You're Writing To A Certain Demographic Because That's Good Business, But I've Never Done That ... I Tried To Write Stories That Would Interest Me. I'd Say, What Would I Like To Read?... I Don't Think You Can Do Your Best Work If You're Writing For Somebody Else, Because You Never Know What That Somebody Else Really Thinks Or Wants.

To My Way Of Thinking, Whether It's A Superhero Movie Or A Romance Or A Comedy Or Whatever, The Most Important Thing Is You've Got To Care About The Characters. You've Got To Understand The Characters And You've Got To Be Interested. If The Characters Are Interesting, You're Half-way Home.

Technology Isn't A Villain. Technology Should Help, But If You Just Use The Technology For The Sake Of Technology, Then You're Cheating Your Audience. You're Not Giving Them The Best Story And The Best Direction And So Forth.

There's Never A Time When I'm Not Working. I Don't Take Vacations.

I Don't Wake Up In The Morning And Say, Wow I've Got A Great Idea For A Story. But I Sit Down, And I Figure Well, Let's See.

I'm Just Working With Ideas In My Head And With Drawings That The Artists Did. And Suddenly To See These Things Come To Life In Movies - It's Just Wonderful.

I Always Thought It Was More Interesting To Think About Reed Richards. As You Know, He Had The Ability To Stretch, And Sexually, That Would Seem To Be A Great Asset In Many Areas.

One Of The Keys Is, And It May Sound Funny, Talking About Characters With Super Powers, But One Of The Keys Is To Make Your Characters As Realistic And Believable As Possible. Even If They Have Super Powers, You Say To Yourself, "well, If Somebody Had A Super Power Like This, What Would His Life Be Like? Wouldn't He Still Maybe Have To Go To The Dentist Or Wouldn't He Have To Worry About Making A Living? What About His Love Life?" You've Got To Make Characters That Your Reader Can Believe Exists Or Might Exist.

I Think People Have Always Loved Things That Are Bigger Than Life, Things That Are Imaginative.

Bigger Than Life

When Writing, I Model All The Heroes After Myself. Of Course, It's Hard To Make Them Quite As Wonderful As I Am, But I Come As Close As I Can.

My Memories Are Beautiful Because My Wife Joan Is English And Shortly After We Were Married, We Stayed In London And I Never Forgot It. We Loved It So Much That We've Been Back Very Often And It's Always A Thrill. To Me, There's New York City Where I Was Born And Raised And Then There's London!

You Can Read A Shakespeare Play, But Does That Mean You Wouldn't Want To See It On The Stage?

I Never Thought That Spider-man Would Become The World Wide Icon That He Is. I Just Hoped The Books Would Sell And I'd Keep My Job.

I Was In The Beginning When [comic Book Superheroes] Started, But Not Anymore. Now I Expect It. I've Gotten Very Used To It.

If I Were Retired I Wouldn't Know What To Do Because I'd Have To Think, Well, Now What Is It I Want To Do? And What I Want To Do Is What I'm Doing. I Enjoy Coming Up With New Ideas, Which If I'm Lucky They Might Be Good Ideas. I Enjoy Seeing Them Take Shape. And I'm Having Fun Doing It. So I Wouldn't Know Why I'd Want To Retire.

What The Hell Could You Do? I've Never Been Arrested, I Haven't Taken Drugs, I've Had The Same Wife For 54 Years; Where's Anything Of Interest To People?

The World Has Always Been Like A Comic Book World To Me! What's Happened Is That Communications Got Better And Better, So Now With Cell-phones We Can Be In Touch With People Half A Globe Away.

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!

I Have Never Had A Lap Dance In Tampa Or Any Other Part Of Florida. If I Ever Did Have A Lap Dance, I Don't Think I Would Be Discussing Television Ideas With The Girl That Was Giving It To Me.

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.

Comic Books Themselves Are Getting More Literate. And There Are People Who Are Screenwriters And Television Writers And Novelists Who Are Writing For The Comics, For Some Reason, They Love Doing It And Some Of The Art Work In The Comics, I Mean It Rivals Anything You'll See Hanging On The Walls Of Museums, They're Illustrations More Than Drawings And All The People Are Discovering This And They're Turning On To It.

I've Written So Many Things Over The Years That I Don't Want To Go Back To Being Just A Scriptwriter. I'm In What I Consider To Be The Enviable Position Of All I Have To Do Is Come Up With The Idea And Write An Outline That Makes It Seem Like It's A Viable Idea That Will Interest People, And Then Other People Write The Scripts -- And I Become The Executive Producer Or The Producer, Depending On How Much Involvement I Have, And I Get A Creative Credit And Then Move On To The Next Project.

Whosoever Holds This Hammer, If He Be Worthy, Shall Possess The Power Of Thor.

I Think The Way You Become A Good Storyteller Is To Read A Lot Of Stories And Evaluate Them In Your Own Mind.

I'd Like To Own Intel... I'd Like To Own Microsoft... I'd Love To Have Warner Bros In My Hip Pocket.

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.

If You Enjoy What You Do, If You Are Interested In What You Do, I Really Think That's The Best Situation.

I Suppose I Have Come To Realize That Entertainment Is Not Easily Dismissed. Beyond The Meaning (of A Work Of Art), It Is Important To People. Without It, Lives Can Be Dull.

I Think There's The Element Of The Excitement Of What I'm Going To See, And With The Special Effects Where You See Men Flying And Walking Through Walls And Shooting Flame Or Whatever They Do, Especially The Younger Audiences, Which Make Up A Bulk Of The Moviegoers, They Love That Sort Of Thing.

You Remember When Tobey Maguire Was First Selected, Most Of The Fans Were Angry. They Felt, What Kind Of A Guy Is That For A Superhero? Nobody Thought It Was A Good Idea. Yet He Turned Out To Be Great. The People At Marvel Who Do These Things Are Really Pretty Smart. If They Chose This Guy, He'll Probably Be Terrific.

The Purpose Of This Is Not Show That I Can Do It Better, Because I Think Superman Is Perfect. The Original Creation Of Superman Nobody Could Have Done That Better And I Think Batman Is Pretty Much A Perfect Character... The Same With All Of Them. I'm Just Going To Try To Find A Way To Say, "if That Wasn't The Original Idea, What Would Be Another Way To Do It That Would Be More In My Style?".

In The Beginning Marvel Created The Bullpen And The Style. And The Bullpen Was Without Form, And Void; And Darkness Was Upon The Face Of The Artists. And The Spirit Of Marvel Said, Let There Be The Fantasic Four. And There Was The Fantasic Four. And Marvel Saw The Fantasic Four. And It Was Good.

It's Just, It's Fun To Stay In The Game.

I'm No Prophet, But I'm Guessing That Comic Books Will Always Be Strong. I Don't Think Anything Can Really Beat The Pure Fun And Pleasure Of Holding A Magazine In Your Hand, Reading The Story On Paper, Being Able To Roll It Up And Put It In Your Pocket, Reread Again Later, Show It To A Friend, Carry It With You, Toss It On A Shelf, Collect Them, Have A Lot Of Magazines Lined Up And Read Them Again As A Series. I Think Young People Have Always Loved That. I Think They Always Will.

I Didn’t Write 'guardians Of The Galaxy.' I’m Not Even Sure Who They All Are. I Can’t Wait To See The Movie.

I See Myself In Everything I Write. All The Good Guys Are Me.

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.

I Remember When I Was A Kid, I Loved Sherlock Holmes. I Thought Arthur Conan Doyle Was One Of The Greatest Writers, Because I Felt I Knew Sherlock Holmes. He Existed To Me. When I Went To England The First Thing I Did Was Go To Baker Street To Look For His House. I Think You've Got To Try To Make All Of Your Characters As Empathetic And Realistic As Possible.

I Hate Being Too Serious About Anything. If I'm With My Friend, I Want To Be Having Fun With Him Or Her. And If Anybody Is Reading My Story, I Want Them To Be Not Only Reading The Story, But I Want Them To Feel They're Having Fun; That They're Enjoying It. So Any Way You Can Make It More Informal, More Fun-filled, More Amusing - Instead Of Just A Dry Story That Goes On And On - If There's Any Way To Do That, I Like To Try And Do It.

I Like Silver Surfer Because He's The Most Philosophical, Always Philosophizing About The Human Race And The Human Condition And Why People Are The Way They Are, Why They Don't Appreciate This Wonderful Planet They Live On... He Has A Nice Moral Tone.

I Don't Sound Disloyal, But I've Never Had A Pair Of Marvel Pyjamas Or Underwear. I Do Have A Lot Of Marvel Figurines At Home In A Cabinet. Every Time They Make A New Marvel Figure I Put It In My Cabinet.

Marvel Is A Cornucopia Of Fantasy, A Wild Idea , A Swashbuckling Attitude , An Escape From The Humdrum And Prosaic. It's A Serendipitous Feast For The Mind, The Eye , And The Imagination, A Literate Celebration Of Unbridled Creativity, Coupled With A Touch Of Rebellion And An Insolent Desire To Spit In The Eye Of The Dragon.

I Had A Publisher Who Felt Comics Were Just For Little Kiddies, So He Never Wanted Me To Use Words Of More Than Two Syllables.

The Main Thing I Want To Do, Is To Make Our Website The Most Entertaining Website There Is On The Internet. I Want It To Be The Premiere Site For Entertainment, For Communication, And For Fun.

Everybody Learns Differently And Everybody Gets To A Certain Point From A Different Direction.

Different Directions

I Think Any Comic Book - Or Really, Any Book That You Can Read - In A Sense Is An Educational Tool In That It Helps Literacy. The More You Read, The Better You Get At It. It Almost Doesn't Matter What You Read, The Important Thing Is For Young People To Become Readers.

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibilty.

I Don't Know Where The Hell I'll Be In 5 Years. Maybe I'll Be Producing Movies Maybe I'll Be On A Corner Selling Apples. I Don't Know, But I'm Having A Hell Of A Lot Of Fun.

I Always Sympathized With The People Who Did Work For Hire; I Was One Of Them.

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.

Of What Import Are Brief, Nameless Lives . . . To Galactus?

Wives Should Be Kissed - Not Heard.

To Tell You The Truth, I Never Thought Of Myself As Much Of A Success.

You Can't Kill A Good Comic Book Series.

The Movies Have Made The Comic Books Much More Valuable And More Respected.

Usually, The Biggest Hang-up Is The Script. You Could Have A Script Done In Six Months That You Love, Or It Could Be Like The Fantastic Four It's Been Almost 10 Years.

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.

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.

Fans Are Almost Always Nice. I Really Find That They Rarely Come On Too Strong.

No Matter How Good A Story Is, If You're At A Newsstand And You See A Lot Of Comic Books, You Don't Know How Good The Story Is Unless You Read It. But You Can Spot The Artwork Instantly, And You Know Whether You Like The Artwork, Whether It Grabs You Or Not.

Every Day, There's A New Development. ... There's No Limit To The Things That Are Happening.

I Always Figure I'm Not Unique, And Something That Would Please Me Hopefully Would Please A Lot Of Other People That Have The Same Tastes That I Do.

People Are Pissed Off About The Seemingly Impossible Goal Of Social Mobility. Their Proposed Solution Is To Take The Wheels Off The Cart.

There's Just Something That Feels Nice About Holding A Comic Book!

The Public Always Loves Anything That's Different, As Long As It's Well-made, If It's Well-done. You Never Know What To Expect When You Go To One Of These So-called Superhero Movies.

I Couldn't Afford [buying Marvel]. I Hope I Have Enough Money For Dinner Tonight!

Your Humans Slaughter Each Other Because Of The Color Of Your Skin, Or Your Faith Or Your Plitics -- Or For No Reason At All -- Too Many Of You Hate As Easily As You Draw Breath. - Magneto

We're Living In A World Where Everything Moves Very Quickly. We've Become A Very Visual Society, So I Think It's A Very Natural Thing That People Are Captivated With The Illustrations In A Story.

Some People Are Able To Not Only Entertain The Public In Any Way That They Can But Also In Some Way To Throw In Some Sort Of Inspirational Message With The Entertainment. I Have Always Tried To Do That With Whatever I Wrote. And I'm Sure That A Lot Of Other Writers Do, Too.

I Had Been Writing Comic Books For Years And I Was Doing Them To Please A Publisher, Who Felt That Comics Are Only Read By Very Young Children Or Stupid Adults. And Therefore, We Have To Keep The Stories Very Simplistic... And Those Were All Things I Hated.

Luck Is One Of The Most Important Things In The World And Really Has A Role To Play In Everything, And In Marriage, I've Been Lucky Enough To Be Married To The Same Girl For All These Years.

Life Is Never Completely Without Its Challenges.

I'm Lucky. I Don't Have To Produce The Whole Movie. What I've Been Doing Is Just Coming Up With Ideas For Movies. I Write A Concept, A Treatment, An Outline, And If I Sell That To A Studio, Then Someone Else Does The Actual Production And I Go On To Another Project, Although I Keep The Title Executive Producer.

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.

People Like Stories That Are Bigger Than Life, About Characters With Unusual Powers. And When You Get All The Characters In The Zodiac, It's So Colorful, And It's So Rich In Different Attitudes That The Characters Have.

The Comics Of Course, Help The Movies, Because All Of The Comic Fans Want To See The Movies. And The Most Amazing Thing About It Is These Movies Seem To Appeal To Young People, To Old People, And To People All Over The World. They're As Popular In China And Latin America As They Are Here. That's Really Amazing And Gratifying.

If There Are People Who Like The Work You've Done, Because Of That, They Like You And Want Your Autograph And To Take A Photo, That's Really Gratifying. You Have To Be Appreciative.

Comic Books To Me Are Fairy Tales For Grown-ups.

I Work With People And We Come Up With Ideas For Movies, Television And Things Like That. It's Fun And I Love Doing It.

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.

If I Got A Superpower I Wouldn't Say, Oh, I Got To Get A Costume And Put On A Mask. I Would Say Hey, I Can Do Something Better Than Other People. How Can I Turn It Into A Buck?

Just Because You Have Superpowers, That Doesn't Mean Your Love Life Would Be Perfect. I Don't Think Superpowers Automatically Means There Won't Be Any Personality Problems, Family Problems Or Even Money Problems. I Just Tried To Write Characters Who Are Human Beings Who Also Have Superpowers.

Singing A Song, Playing Sports - Anything That Entertains, That Takes People Away From Their Own Problems, Is Good.

We All Wish We Had Super Powers. We All Wish We Could Do More Than We Can Do.

It's Amazing What These Superhero Movies Have Become.

Ideally, Anything One Writes Should Have A Social Conscience: If You Can Write A Story That Thrills, And With A Good Message, That's The Perfect Type Of A Story.

I Think Comics Will Always Be Around. I Think There's Something Nice About A Comic Book. People Love To Hold 'em, Turn The Pages, Fold 'em Up, Roll 'em Up, Stick 'em In Their Back Pocket, Show 'em To A Friend, And Say, "hey, Look At This."

I Think Kids Love Superheroes, And The More You Can Crowd Into A Story, The More Excited They Get.

I Love All The Voiceovers I Do. I Can't Remember Them All, But I Seem To Do Them All Of The Time. And There's Nothing Easier Because You Just Stand And Read The Script, And You Don't Have To Act The Way Actors Do. You Don't Have To Be Made Up And Put Costumes On.

If You Have Superheroes Or Characters That Exist In The Same World, And You're Doing Movies Of Them, Wouldn't It Be Fun To Put A Couple Of Them Together In One Movie? Audiences Love That. It's A Natural Thing To Do That.

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.

The Power Of Prayer Is Still The Greatest Ever Known In This Endless Eternal Universe.-the Watcher In The Avengers #14

I Don't Think You Ever Outgrow Your Love For Things That Are Bigger Than Life And More Colorful Than The Average Life. And Somehow I Feel That These Comic Book Stories Are Like Fairy Tales For Older People, Because They Have The Same Qualities.

The Only Advice Anybody Can Give Is, If You Wanna Be A Writer, Keep Writing. And Read All You Can, Read Everything.

Maybe There Will Always Be A Market For The Regular Comic Books Because You Can Read [them] At Your Own Pace. You Can Save Them, Collect Them, [then] Go Back And Read Them Again.

I Think Superheroes Are Bigger Than Life And They're Very Colorful.

Bigger Than Life

I Love Recording Lines. It's Like Being An Actor Without Having To Really Act.

I'm Practically An Actor. Even When You Do An Interview, It's Like You're Performing A Little Bit, So Yeah, I'm Enjoying It, It's Fun.

I Never Really Am Concerned About The Political Landscape Of The Day When I'm Writing Because No Matter What It Is, It Will Change. By The Time My Stories Come Out, It Will Have Changed. So I Never Think Much About That.

I'm Afraid I Go Through The Same Thing All The Time.

I Want To Get That Same Feeling That Everybody Logging On To Our Website Is Sharing A Little Bit Of An Inside Joke, And The Rest Of The World Is Oblivious To It Although I Want To Have Most Of The World.

No One Has A Perfect Life. Everybody Has Something That He Wishes Was Not The Way It Is.

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.

Movies Help The Sales Of The Comics.

The More You Read, The Better You're Going To Become As A Storyteller.

I Think Almost Everybody Enjoyed Fairy Tales When They Were Young, Tales Of Witches And Ogres And Monsters And Dragons And So Forth. You Get A Little Bit Older, You Can't Read Fairy Tales Any More.

Achilles, Without His Heel, You Wouldn't Even Know His Name Today.

I'm Sort Of A Pressure Writer. If Somebody Says, "stan, Write Something," And I Have To Have It By Tomorrow Morning, I'll Just Sit Down And I'll Write It. It Always Seems To Come To Me. But I'm Better Doing A Rushed Job Because If It Isn't Something That's Due Quickly, I Won't Work On It Until It Becomes Almost An Emergency And Then I'll Do It.

No Matter What You Write, It's A Matter Of Putting Words In A Certain Order So That The Reader Will Be Interested In What You're Writing.

The Thing To Me That's Fun Is Trying To Make The Characters Seem Believable, Or Realistic. And It's Especially Challenging When You're Doing Fantasy Stories, When You're Doing Superhero Types Of Things.

My Biggest Regret Is That I Don't Really Have Time To Read.

When You Can Sit Down With A Plain Sheet Of Paper In Front Of You And Make Some Notes, And, Little By Little, You See It Take Shape And Become A Concept For A Movie Or A Tv Show. That's A Real Thrill. You Watch It Go From Notes On A Paper To A Meeting With Writers And Directors And Actors. I Can't Think Of Anything That's More Exciting.

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.

The Comic Book Industry Has Turned Into The Wellspring For All Of These Movies That Are All Based On The Comic Books.

I've Been Very Lucky. All I Wanted Was To Pay The Rent. Then These Characters Took Off And Suddenly There Were Hulk Coffee Mugs And Iron Man Lunchboxes And The Avengers Sweatshirts Everywhere. Money's Okay, But What I Really Like Is Working.

Superheroes? In New York? Give Me A Break!

Comic Books Sort Of Follow With The Move - If People See The Movie And If They're Interested In The Character And Want To See More Of The Character, They Start Buying The Comic Books. So A Good Movie Helps The Sale Of The Comic Books And The Comic Books Help The Movie And One Hand Washes The Other. So, I Don't Think There's Any Reason To Think That Comics Will Die Out.

Reading Is Very Good. And You Can Quote Me!

From 1940 To About 1960, I Had Been Writing Just Regular Comics, The Way My Publishers Wanted Me Too. He Didn't Want Me To Use Words Of More Than Two Syllables If I Could Help It. He Didn't Want Me To Waste Time On Worrying About Good Dialogue Or Characterization. Just Give Me A Lot Of Action, Lot Of Fight Scenes.

Everybody Is Excited About Their Projects And I'm Excited Too. It's Not Like Working. It's Like Playing With Your Friends. When I Was A Kid, I'd Say To My Mother, "can I Go Out And Play With The Kids Now?" Now I'm Out Playing With The Kids All Day Long.

I Do Conventions Sometimes Every Other Weekend. Whenever I Have Time, And It's Not Too Far Away. I Get A Lot Of Invitations (to Appear At Conventions) In Other Countries And I Have To Turn Them Down.

I'm Very Proud Of Being A Hack. It's Why I've Lived As Long As I Have, I Think.

If You're Going To Write Something, That's Going To Be Read By People, A Lot Of People, You Hope It Will Not Only Entertain Them But Maybe Do Them Some Good In Some Way.

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.

I Do Know That People Enjoy Reading A Comic Book And Saving It And Collecting The Comics. And Sharing Them And Trading Them With Friends. That May Be Something You Can't Do As Easily With Digital Comics.

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 Artform As Anything On Earth?

In A Sense, The Artwork Is The Most Important Thing In Getting Somebody To Buy A Book. The Person Probably Won't Buy A Book If He Doesn't Like The Artwork. Once You Buy It For The Artwork, You Hope That The Story Will Also Be Good.

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.

I Have A Reputation For Doing Superheroes, But I Like All Kinds Of Writing. In Fact, Hardly Anybody Knows This, But I've Probably Written As Many Humor Stories As Superhero Stories.

Virtually Every Kid Is Exposed To Giants And Ogres And Talking Wolves, And So Forth. And Magic. And I Think You Never Outgrow Your Love For Those Imaginative, Fanciful, Farfetched, Fantastic Characters And Situations.

When You Work With People Whom You Like And You Admire Because They're So Good At What They Do, It Doesn't Feel Like Work. It's Like You're Playing.

It Is Impossible To Do A Movie Exactly The Way A Comic Book Is Written And Drawn, Just As It's Impossible To Do A Movie Exactly Like A Novel Or Exactly Like Anything Else. When You Go To Different Forms Of Media, You Have To Adapt.

These Stories Of People With Unusual Powers And Unusual Appearances, Who Do Unusual Things, People Are Always Fascinated By Them.

Negative Information Is That Which, Immediately Upon Acquiring, Causes The Recipient To Know Less Than He Did Before.

If You Have A Character That Seems To Be All Perfect, It's Hard To Relate To Him Because When You Read A Story You Really Want To Empathize With The Character That You Are Reading About. And It's Hard To Empathize With Someone Who Is Flawless And Who Has No Problems.

If You Are Interested In What You Do, That Keeps You Going!

The "problem" Is That Comic-con Is So Damned Successful. People Who Are There Seem To Have A Wonderful Time. The Very Size Of It Makes It Exciting. Wherever You Look, There's Something Exciting. The Attendees Are Always Looking Around For A Familiar Face. It's Either 'there's A Movie Star!' Or, 'there's A Tv Star!' Or, 'there's The Guy Who Drew The Green Lantern!' It Means So Much To The Fans. It Makes Them Feel Like They're Where It's Happening. It's Like Woodstock.

To Me Everything Is Fun. I've Started Twittering Or Tweeting Recently And That's Been Fun.

My Problem Is I Don't See And Hear That Well, So When I Go To The Movies, I Can Make Out What's Going On, But I Can't Hear What They're Saying. And After The Movie, I Have To Ask Whoever I'm With "now, What Was That All About?"

Face Front, True Believers!

I Guess One Person Can Make A Difference.

Making A Difference

One Person Can Make A Difference

We Have Enough To Do Just Trying To Make Our Company What We Want It To Be. As Far As Whether I Would Like To Own Marvel, Sure, I'd Like To Own Marvel.

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.

I Am Always Nostalgic Being In New York. Every Neighborhood Represents Something To Me. I Lived Here Until I Was 60 Years Old Or So. So It Was My Life.

I Like Spider-man Because He's Become The Most Famous. He's The One Who's Most Like Me - Nothing Ever Turns Out 100 Percent Ok; He's Got A Lot Of Problems, And He Does Things Wrong, And I Can Relate To That.

Comics Are Stories; They're Like Novels Or Anything Else. So The First Thing You Have To Do Is Become A Good Storyteller.

If You're Writing About A Character, If He's A Powerful Character, Unless You Give Him Vulnerability I Don't Think He'll Be As Interesting To The Reader.

So I'm Happiest When I'm Working With Artists And Writers, And Involved In Stories, Whether We're Talking About Animation Or Movies Or Comics Or Television.

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.

I Love Marvel And The People There. Im Glad I M Still Part Of It.

It's Hard Not To Be Enthusiastic When You Like What You're Doing And I Love What I Do. I Love Writing Stories, I Love Coming Up With Ideas For New Projects And I Love The People I Work With, Because I Work With Great Writers And Artists And Directors And Actors.

If Nobody Is Looking For A Story, And I Have No Reason To Write A Story, I Would Really Much Rather To Do Anything Else Because It's No Fun Writing Stories, Particularly Not For Me. I Just Do It In Order To Sell Them And Make A Couple Of Bucks.

In Fact, I Was Too Dumb To Save Any Of The Old Comic Books Or The Old Artwork. I Used To Give Them Away.

In The Entertainment Industry All That Anybody Wants To Do Whether It's Music Or Stories Or Dancing Or Comedy Or Whatever, They Want To Entertain The Public. And They Do It Any Way They Can. Sometimes They Concentrate Simply On Entertaining People And They Don't Care What Message They Are Giving.

Nobody Likes To Be Preached To.

You Always Exaggerate Things In A Movie. If It Makes A Good Visual And It Excites The Kids That's Good.

I Thought It Would Be Great To Do Superheroes That Have The Same Kind Of Life Problems That Any Reader - That Anybody Could Have.

To Be Honest, When I Was Writing These Stories A Million Years Ago, I Never Thought About Movies At All One Way Or Another. It Would Have Seemed Almost Miraculous For These Things To Be Movies Someday. To Me, They Were Just Comic Books That I Hoped Would Sell So I Could Keep My Job.

Some People Will Say, "why Read A Comic Book? It Stifles The Imagination. If You Read A Novel You Imagine What People Are Like. If You Read A Comic, It's Showing You." The Only Answer I Can Give Is, "you Can Read A Shakespeare Play, But Does That Mean You Wouldn't Want To See It On The Stage?

It's A Tremendous Challenge, Because There Have Been So Many Characters Created Over The Years. Every Time You Think You Come Up With A Great Name, You Find Out Somebody Has Already Done It. Dreaming Up The Stories Isn't That Hard, But Coming Up With A Good Title Is The Toughest Part.

I Couldn't Say No When I Received That Offer [to Re-invent The Dc Characters]... How Can Any Writer Say No To The Opportunity Of Redoing Every One Of Dc's Top Superheroes?

I Know The World Expects Me To Have Superpowers, And It'll Be Quite A Disappointment. But I Just Play Myself.

I Enjoyed Reading Batman, And Superman, And All The Super Ones, But I Never Wished I Created Them. I've Got To Let There Be Some Work For Other People!

I'm The Chairman Emeritus, And According To My Contract I Am Supposed To Devote 10% Of My Time To Working For Marvel... And The Rest Of My Time, I Can Do Anything That I Wish.

If You Wanna Be An Artist Carry Sketch Pad With You, And Sketch Everything You See. Get So You Can Draw Anything And It Looks Like What It's Supposed To Be. It's A Lot Of Work, But If You Really Have It In You, It's Not Like Work. It Becomes Fun.

When I Was A Kid, I Loved Reading Sherlock Holmes. Now, You Don't Think Of Him As A Superhero, But He Was So Damn Much Smarter Than Anybody Else.

I Am Very Lucky Because Everything That I Do Is Exciting To Me. It's Always New.

I Think If I Were A Superhero Saving The World, I'd Expect At Least Not To Have To Pay Income Taxes. I Mean There Should Be Something In It For A Hero Who Risks His Life To Save Mankind Every Day.

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.

Everything Has Changed And We're All Living In One City Now. What Happens Somewhere Affects Things Everywhere, So I Have To Be Careful And Whatever Stories I Work On, I Want Them To Have Redeeming Moral Values.

I'm As Excited As A Kid With A New Toy To Be Able To Create A Unique, Exciting, Urban Superhero For A Magazine That I Respect As Much As Vibe.

To Me, Writing Is Fun. It Doesn't Matter What You're Writing, As Long As You Can Tell A Story.

Once You Get The Script, You Then Hope You Can Get The Director That You Want. Then You Hope He Can Get The Cast He Wants. Again, You Can Go Quickly Or There Can Be A Million Stumbling Blocks. There's Just No Way To Know.

When You Combine The Great Stories From The Comics With The Action And Visual Excitement Of The Movies, It Doesn't Get Any Better!

... And We Talk It Out. Lately, I've Had Roy Thomas Come In, And He Sits And Makes Notes While We Discuss It. Then He Types Them Up, Which Gives Us A Written Synopsis. Originally - I Have A Little Tape Recorder - I Had Tried Taping It, But Then I Found No One On Staff Has Time To Listen To The Tape Again Later. But This Way He Makes Notes, Types It Quickly, I Get A Carbon, The Artist Gets A Carbon ... So We Don't Have To Worry That We'll Forget What We've Said.

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 .

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.

I'm Not A Guy Who Gets Inspirations.

I'm Happiest When I'm Working. If I'm Not Working, I Feel Like I'm Wasting My Time.

Wasting My Time

I Think People Are Interested In Anything That's A Little Bigger Than Life And That's Colorful And - You Know, What They Like? They Like Fairy Tales For Grownups.

Bigger Than Life

All I Thought About When I Wrote My Stories Was, "i Hope That These Comic Books Would Sell So I Can Keep My Job And Continue To Pay The Rent." Never In A Million Years Could I Have Imagined That It Would Turn Into What It Has Evolved Into Nowadays. Never.

The Cliché I Tried To Avoid Was I Hated "teenage Sidekicks." I Always Figured If I Were A Superhero, There's No Way On God's Earth That I'm Gonna Pal Around With Some Teenager. So My Publisher Insisted I Have A Teenager In The Series, Because They Always Felt Teenagers Won't Read The Books Unless There's A Teenager In The Story; Which Is Nonsense.

I Don't Really See A Need To Retire As Long As I Am Having Fun.

Comming From Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man

I'm Not That Familiar With Andrew Garfield, But If The Powers That Be Chose Him, I'm Sure He'll Be Good.

I Think I've Got 12... Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman, Plastic-man, Green Lantern, Sandman, The Justice League, The Atom Legion Of Superheroes And Teen Titans.... Just About All Of Their Top Titles.

I Think It's Just The Challenge. It's Not That All My Life I've Wanted To Do Characters [in Marvel] , Because I Never Particularly Thought About It, But The Challenge Of Saying, "how Could They Be Done Differently That May Be More Absorbing Or More Effective?"

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Warren G. Bennis

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