Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) was an American comic book writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Publications which would later become Marvel Comics. He was the primary creative leader for two decades, leading its expansion from a small division of a publishing house to a multimedia corporation that dominated the comics and film industries.
In collaboration with others at Marvel – particularly co-writers/artists Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko – he co-created iconic characters, including superheroes Spider-Man, the X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, Ant-Man, the Wasp, the Fantastic Four, Black Panther, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, Scarlet Witch, and Black Widow. These and other characters’ introductions in the 1960s pioneered a more naturalistic approach in superhero comics.
In the 1970s Lee challenged the restrictions of the Comics Code Authority, indirectly leading to changes in its policies. In the 1980s he pursued the development of Marvel properties in other media, with mixed results. Following his retirement from Marvel in the 1990s, Lee remained a public figurehead for the company, and frequently made cameo appearances in films and television shows based on Marvel characters, on which he received an executive producer credit.
He continued independent creative ventures into his 90s until his death in 2018. Lee was inducted into the comic book industry’s Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1995. He received the NEA’s National Medal of Arts in 2008. The Stan Lee Foundation was founded in 2010 to focus on literacy, education, and the arts.
Some of the best quotes from Stan Lee are listed below.
- “Achilles, without his heel, you wouldn’t even know his name today.” – Stan Lee
- “Anything that entertains, that takes people away from their own problems, is good.” – Stan Lee
- “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.” – Stan Lee
- “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
- “Every day there’s a new development…there’s no limit to the things that are happening.” – Stan Lee
- “Everybody learns differently and everybody gets to a certain point from a different direction.” – Stan Lee
- “Excelsior!” – Stan Lee
- “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.” – Stan Lee
- “I always sympathized with the people who did work for hire; I was one of them.” – Stan Lee
- “I am very lucky because everything that I do is exciting to me. It’s always new.” – Stan Lee
- “I don’t analyze things too closely. I find the more you analyze, the more you get away from spontaneity.” – Stan Lee
- “I don’t have inspiration. I only have ideas. Ideas and deadlines.” – Stan Lee
- “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.” – Stan Lee
- “I wanted them to be diverse. The whole underlying principle of the X-Men was to try and be an anti-bigotry story to show there’s good in every person.” – Stan Lee
- “I’m happiest when I’m working. If I’m not working, I feel like I’m wasting my time.” – Stan Lee
- “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.” – Stan Lee
- “I’m very proud of being a hack. It’s why I’ve lived as long as I have, I think.” – Stan Lee
- “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.” – Stan Lee
- “If you are interested in what you do, that keeps you going!” – Stan Lee
- “If you enjoy what you do, if you are interested in what you do, I really think that’s the best situation.” – Stan Lee
- “It’s fun doing something that hasn’t been done before” – Stan Lee
- “It’s just, it’s fun to stay in the game.” – Stan Lee
- “Life is never completely without its challenges” – Stan Lee
- “Luck is one of the most important things in the world and it really has a role to play in everything.” – Stan Lee
- “Money’s okay, but what I really like is working.” – Stan Lee
- “My theory about why people like superheroes is that when we were kids, we all loved to read fairy tales. Fairy tales are all about things bigger than life…then you get a little bit older and you stop reading fairy tales but you don’t ever outgrow your love of them.” – Stan Lee
- “Negative information is that which, immediately upon acquiring, causes the recipient to know less than he did before.” – Stan Lee
- “Negative information is that which, immediately upon acquiring, causes the recipient to know less than he did before.” – Stan Lee
- “No one has a perfect life. Everybody has something that he wishes was not the way it is.” – Stan Lee
- “Nobody has a perfect life. Everybody has something that he wishes was not the way it is.” – Stan Lee
- “Reading is very good. And you can quote me!” – Stan Lee
- “The more you read, the better you’re going to become as a storyteller.” – Stan Lee
- “The only advice anybody can give is, if you wanna be a writer, keep writing. And read all you can, read everything.” – Stan Lee
- “To have an idea is the easiest thing in the world. Everybody has ideas. But you have to take that idea and make it into something people will respond to – that’s hard.” – Stan Lee
- “To me everything is fun. I’ve started Twittering or tweeting recently and that’s been fun.” – Stan Lee
- “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.” – Stan Lee
- “To tell you the truth, I never thought of myself as much of a success.” – Stan Lee
- “We all wish we had super powers. We all wish we could do more than we can do.” – Stan Lee
- “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” – Stan Lee
- “With great power comes great responsibility.” – Stan Lee
