Gene Luen Yang Quotes

While many comics have a secret persona, I fundamentally want to be myself.

No one knows who Peter Parker is. People just know who Spider-Man is. When you get that in the mix of growing up and finding yourself, that's more of a relatable tone than being Captain America and having the country's weight on your shoulders.

Having a stage name is like having a Superman complex. I go into the telephone booth as Eric Bishop and come out as Jamie Foxx.

The difference between me as Brian Warner or Marilyn Manson is just words. Same personality, sensibility, sense of humor, behavior. He is me.

'Miele' is a code name for a girl who has a double life.

For some reason, Superman seems to be held to higher standards on the subject of secret/super identities than other superheroes. No one ever says, 'Peter Parker was a nerdy kid. He can't possibly be Spider-Man, attract a good-looking gal, work in a newspaper, etc.' And no one gets hung up on whether his nerdiness is a disguise.

I'm dying to fool around with the distance between Selina Kyle and Catwoman. And, you know, the whole double identity thing is endlessly fascinating. I mean, you can always find another riff for it.

When I became my masked identity I was this incredible little nerd, but in the real world I had to be this tough kid from the neighborhood.

My mother wouldn't allow me to speak slang when I was growing up. But when I got outside, around my friends, it was 'Yo' and 'That's the joint' and 'Yo, what's up?' So I had my game for my friends and my game for my mom.

I loved the idea that I had an alter-ego but that my true identity was very well known and very much on the surface. I was the only one who didn't know who Stardust really was. So it was very much tied to comics - everything I've done. I did a whole run where I'd wear a face mask when I was on SmackDown, and that was based on Dr. Doom.

I always wanted to have sort of an alter ego.

Like a lot of people, I've often wondered what else I might have been. When I was younger, but even after I was a child, I thought Batman was the whole package. Smart, calculating, pragmatic. Depressed, but in a way women found hot. Tragic at his core and struggling with his demons while trying to save the world.

Willem Dafoe and I are actually the same person.

Weird, but sometimes I feel more like my cartoon character than I do Lizzie because she's a little more edgy and snappy.

I never wanted to be Marilyn - it just happened. Marilyn's like a veil I wear over Norma Jeane.

'Superman' has always been about Lois Lane, Superman and Clark Kent and this love triangle between these three people who really are only two people.

I always knew the way in was Bruce Wayne. It wasn't Batman. It was never Batman. That was the key.

I remember when I was a kid, I would watch 'Superman', and I was super into the feeling of knowing that Clark Kent is Superman and no one knows.

There's an honesty to Clark, Kal-El - Kal-El's the better way of saying it because he is both Superman and Clark - there's an honesty to him which crosses over on both - I don't like to use the word 'identities,' but I will because I can't think of a better one. So, it is not that tough to make that swap and change.

When you look at Clark Kent when he's working at the Daily Planet, he's a reporter. He doesn't fly through the air in his glasses and his suit.

I'm a big fan of domino masks, like Zorro, or Robin. You could put a domino mask on anything, and it becomes a superhero. You put a domino mask on a milkman, and he becomes, like, Super Milkman.

I don't always feel sexy even though I have to look it, and I've just learned to go into on-and-off mode. I'm a mom at home, and then I go into work, and it's nice to have that contrast. I see a different person in the mirror when I'm at work with hair and makeup than when I'm home.

The Green Hornet was a human superhero. And he didn't wear a clown costume. And he was a criminal - in the eyes of the law - and in the eyes of the criminal world.

I'm a real-life 'Hannah Montana.'

We all have split personalities; we all wear masks at some point in our careers.