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.
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 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.
Fans are almost always nice. I really find that they rarely come on too strong.
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.
I thought it would be great to do superheroes that have the same kind of life problems that any reader – that anybody could have.
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.
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 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.
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.
When you combine the great stories from the comics with the action and visual excitement of the movies, it doesn’t get any better!
Life is never completely without its challenges.
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.
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.
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.
No one has a perfect life. Everybody has something that he wishes was not the way it is.
I know the world expects me to have superpowers, and it’ll be quite a disappointment. But I just play myself.
Singing a song, playing sports – anything that entertains, that takes people away from their own problems, is good.
I think people have always loved things that are bigger than life, things that are imaginative.
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.
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.