A current on-line interview Brian Michael Bendis conducted with Stan Lee starts with the following exchange:

"Bendis: First of all, I have to tell you a very funny anecdote to start us off.
Lee: Great. The more you talk, the less I’ll have to.
Bendis: I talked to Steve Ditko this week. We were setting up these interviews and you were nice enough to say yes, and Steranko is going to do one and he’s kind of an impossible get, and some other people are doing this who are very hard to get. So I was talking to our mutual friend Ralph Macchio. Ralph is in contact with Steve Ditko and is very aware that Steve doesn’t do interviews, but I said, ‘Boy, What a coup to get him.’
So Ralph said, ‘Listen, I can get you on the phone with him. We can at least try.’ So I got on the phone with him. I said, ‘Hi. My name is Brian Bendis and I write Spider-Man for the last few years.’ And he went ‘Uh huh.’
I said, ‘We’re doing these interviews.’ And he said, ‘Well, I don’t do interviews.’ I’m like: ‘Yeah, well, I knew that it was a long shot. I just thought that I would try. Can I ask you why you don’t do interviews?’
He goes: ‘Oh, you know what? That’s an excellent question. But it’s an interview question and I don’t do interviews.’ And that was the end of the phone call.
Lee: [Laughs] He didn’t even tell you why he didn’t do interviews?
Bendis: No. I said, ‘No. No. I’m not asking it as an interview. I’m asking from one writer to another – I’m actually curious what it was that happened.’ He said, ‘Oh, well that’s a very good question, but I don’t do interviews.’
Lee: [Laughs] Well – I don’t need a building to fall on me. I’m beginning to think that this man does not do interviews.
Bendis: Exactly. But I got to thank him for helping to create Spider-Man and that’s all that I really wanted to say and so I said it and we hung up. "

There's nothing else on Ditko in the interview, but if you want to read the whole thing then it's available at http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazine/ ... cfm?page=4

Thats a great story and by relating it, Bendis proved WHY Ditko doesn't do them, or even second hand, as the information would be the same thing. Just respect the privacy, man!

David,

I love it! Thanks for sharing!

I must admit I wish he did do interviews. He would give some great insights, or even just stories, into the history of comics, and his work (not interested in any wars or anything like that. Just anecdotes, fun stuff). His perogative and he certainly stuck to his guns over the years.

It would undoubtedly be fascinating.

I interviewed Mr. Ditko once. When he realized what he did, he put one of those mask/wrist and feet binding spells on me, and since then I've never been able to talk about it.

I hope someday it wears off.

We laughed, we cried, he told stories like you wouldn't believe!

Would the 'interviews' that Ditko has done be located only in letters written to fans thruout the years? Or friendly conversation over a sandwich at the local deli? Likely!

That nature of an interview to dig for info, or the conversation derived from intimate camaraderie of familiarity, are two different worlds set far, far apart. Ditko is a genius of leading the drawing pen to perform magical feats. All his works are interviews of the man. Look deeply! There, in lines and shapes of his works there is found, no matter from what generation or from what culture, an intuitive sense of friendship.

Nice. First. Post!