Top 25 Magneto Quotes & Sayings

It's much easier to talk about racism when you're able to use mutants as a metaphor. People would much rather talk about Charles Xavier and Magneto than they would about Martin Luther King or Malcolm X.

You know, for a normal kid it might be how to ask somebody out on a date or how to deal with the SATs or just how to deal with the bully down the block. And the X-Men have the conflict of Magneto or aliens or what-have-you.

I did the X-Men, and I plotted the stories, and Roy Thomas dialogued them. And that first set of comic books that I did are the plot that the first X-Men movie was taken from, where Magneto invents a machine that turns regular humans into mutants. That's my idea.

That's why when major badasses greet each other in movies, they don't say anything, they just nod. The nod means, 'I' am a badass, and I recognize that you, too, are a badass,' but they don't say anything because they're Wolverine and Magneto and it would mess up their vibe to explain.

The most fascinating powers don't mean a thing if the guy's poorly motivated or dull, and the most generic powers won't hurt a well-motivated character. Personality and motivation are what make Magneto, Magneto and not Cosmic Boy. The powers work for him, but it's his motivation that makes him the character he is.

My view of Magneto is that he's the terrorist who might someday evolve into a statesman.

Magneto has a whole lot of complexity to him. Emotionally, he's coming from a very damaged place. I like the ambivalence of it. I want the audience leaving the theater wondering, asking the questions themselves rather than being spoon-fed like a lot of these super-villain characters.

My little cousin tells me I look like Magneto so I guess that's who I should probably play.

On the day after 9/11, I walking through the smoke and the smells of New York. There were knots of policemen everywhere. As I went past one officer, he called out: "Hi, Magneto." That's an indication of X-Men's extraordinary reach.

'Magneto' believes that 'Cyclops' and 'Wolverine' both serve a good purpose. But he believes the help they provide only goes so far.

The only time I ever met a character that I wrote was when I met Ian McKellan, when he was playing Magneto in the 'X-Men' movies.

'Magneto' is a tragic figure. He is a man who has stared right into the face of ultimate evil... and he was broken into pieces by what he saw. When he healed, he healed stronger, but he also never fully recovered.

I'm fortunate to be famous for two rather imposing characters like Magneto and Gandalf.

Your humans slaughter each other because of the color of your skin, or your faith or your plitics -- or for no reason at all -- too many of you hate as easily as you draw breath. - Magneto

Every significant book at Marvel had its key antagonist. 'The Fantastic Four' had Doctor Doom; 'Spider-Man' had Doc Ock, among others; Thor had Loki, if not Surtur. Without Magneto, the X-Men had nobody.

I think the best villains are ones that you can look at and say, 'Yeah, he's obviously going about this the wrong way or going too far or whatever, but I can see where he's coming from.' Magneto's a great example of that, and the reason he and Charles Xavier can have such great conversations is that they can both make some good points.

Journalists often ask me: "Aren't you sorry that after all the work you've done, you're best known as Magneto and Gandalf?" But that's what I've always wanted - not to be known as myself. I want to draw attention to the characters.

One of the things I love best about Marvel is the 'What If?' factor; being able to just say, 'Today we're going to explore a world where Magneto and Emma never gave back the X-Men. Or a world where Mary Jane shares Peter's powers.' So being able to do that is just super exciting.

I've been exposed to a ton of 'Magneto' stories over the years, and they all influence me.

My resonance to Magneto and Xavier was borne more out of the Holocaust. It was coming face to face with evil, and how do you respond to it? In Magneto's case it was violence begets violence. In Xavier's it was the constant attempt to find a better way.

Magneto wants to cope with the difficulties thrust upon him by society and by his own nature.

Writing 'Magneto' as part of a team took a little getting used to.

I think 'Magneto' is definitely an anti-hero. He's fighting for the right thing, but his methods are far too extreme. He's not above breaking the law, stretching the limits of what is moral and putting evil to work for good.

I had never come across the 'X-Men' comics till I was asked to play Magneto, so I just jumped into that job.

Magneto is classically known for being, like, a caricature of a supervillain who gives a lot of speeches, likes to fly up, teach people a lesson, make society look at themselves.