Stan Lee

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.

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.

If I'm half as good as everybody said I am, I'm far too good to be wasting time with ordinary people. But I seem to be spending my life with ordinary people, who are the best people in the world.

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.

My mother was the greatest mother in the world. She thought I was the greatest thing on two feet. I'd come home with a little composition I had written at school, and she'd look at it and say, 'It's wonderful! You're another Shakespeare!' I always assumed I could do anything. It really is amazing how much that has to do with your attitude.

For years, kids have been asking me what's the greatest superpower. I always say luck. If you're lucky, everything works. I've been lucky.

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

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?

It's totally irrational, patently insane to condemn an entire race - to despise an entire nation - to vilify an entire religion.

I love Marvel and the people there. Im glad I m still part of it.

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.

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.

I have always included minority characters in my stories, often as heroes.

I like being with people. I like talking to them. I like everything about my life, so it's fun.

The pleasure of reading a story and wondering what will come next for the hero is a pleasure that has lasted for centuries and, I think, will always be with us.

All of the characters at Marvel were my ideas, but the ideas meant nothing unless I had somebody who could illustrate it.

I think I've never stopped feeling like a kid.

Superheroes? In New York? Give me a break!

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.

I don't really see a need to retire as long as I am having fun.

Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.