Excelsior! To celebrate the great man’s 91st birthday, Mysterious Times is pleased to present a selection of his wit and wisdom. So, in no particular order, here are ten great quotes from the Marvel that is Stan Lee.

• 1. “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.”  (Interview 2006)

• 2. “With great power there must also come – Great Responsibility!” (The actual words used in the first Spider-Man story in ‘Amazing Fantasy #15’ August 1962)

• 3.  “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!” (from Stan Lee’s Amazing Marvel Universe (2006) by Roy Thomas)

• 4. “I don’t really see a need to retire as long as I am having fun.” (2006 Interview)

• 5. (On why he keeps returning to Comic Con) “I think I keep coming back mainly because I’m an idiot”.

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• 6. “The movie made a fortune but it could have made twice as much if I had a speaking line” (on the X-Men film)

• 7. “Someone wants to do a movie of my life now and he’s writing a script, and I said to him, “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?” (Interview 2002)

• 8. “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?” (Denver Post Online,  2013)

• 9. (When asked what he would like to see in the next Spider-Man films) “Me, with a bigger cameo.”

AND…

• 10. ‘Nuff Said!