Top 50 John Ridley Quotes

With writing, timing is everything. Being in the right place at the right time.

I’ve never been much of a European traveler. London once on a book tour, and Italy because that’s where Ferraris are from. That’s about it.

In the Everybody-Give-Me-A-Hug victim culture in which we live, the obese want a spot at the table along with those who face discrimination based on the way that God or Nature or our Intelligent Designer created us.

Quite simply, quite plainly, just by virtue of his being, Obama is America. The first true American to lead our nation.

Certainly as a kid, I grew up with Batman, Superman, whoever – they didn’t need to be black for me to relate to them. But when a character like Cyborg came along, I got excited, because he looked a little bit more like me; his experiences were a little bit more like mine.

As an individual, and I have to say as a person of color, the thing about being an ‘other’ in America is I really feel like you‘re bilingual. I’m from a small town in Wisconsin, but even when I’m in New York and I’m working for MSNBC or CNN, you’re used to being the only black person in the room.

As a coping mechanism, or as a way to make a little hard count by shilling demons in the shadows, I try not to belittle the thought process of the conspiracy theorists. As a cocktail waitress in Vegas once schooled me: never get down on anybody else‘s hustle.

Facts tend to take the punch out of a good hate rant and are therefore left best unsaid.

There’s no disputing that for pols, the Internet is a great way to connect with people and raise some cash and post ‘Sopranos‘ parodies or play your opponent‘s macaca moments. But in a ‘net root‘ sense, it’s pretty useless for getting someone elected.

I haven‘t tweeted once in my life, but I’m sick of hearing about it already. What once may have been the cool way of letting a hundred people know that you’re about to go mow your lawn now has the feel of a used-to-be-fresh means of communicating. So yesterday, like two-way pagers. And AOL.

As an ex-stand up, I can tell you that a comedy club isn’t a place you go looking to get the abuse you just can’t seem to find in daily life. The stage is a performer‘s domain. You protect that domain. You are not on stage to take what’s given just ’cause you’re getting paid. If you are attacked, you retaliate.

Even I haven’t downed enough L.A. Kool-Aid to believe that somehow Hollywood movies are an overt instrument of morality.

There are some individuals who look at graphic novels as ‘canon,’ and they cannot change in any way, shape or form, and that’s what makes them in some ways good fans.

If faux liberal white guys want to support and defend Obama, by all means please do so. But I would suggest they try to limit that support to matters of policy and not perspectives on race.

If there are two kinds of people in the world – DC Comics people and Marvel Comics people – what kind am I? Well, to be honest… I’m a Wildstorm kinda guy. In the interest of full and fair disclosure, I write for Wildstorm. But even if I didn’t, I’d love what they do. No, seriously, I’d love their stuff.

When it comes to fighting for freedom, those who are willing to fight should not be limited by our bigotry. Only rewarded with our gratitude.

I don’t think I’m alarmist. I’m more disappointed by the euphemisms in some instances than outright bigotry. Now, to me, you walk around with a Klan hat on or you’ve got a swastika on you arm, you just look like a dope, you know what I mean?

Being of color in America by no means amounts to a constant barrage of negativity. However, unlike being white, being of color means one’s race is a constant issue.

Oh, happy day when the enemies of ascendancy have got to confess that people of color rock.

I can tell you from personal experience it gets a little tiring having to make the rounds on cable shows to explain ‘what’s up with black folks.’

I’m sorry, but chick fights are sexy. If you don’t think so, you’re either an uptight woman or a lying man.

Perhaps the single most important thing for a child is to be with a loving, supportive family. And all things being equal, any child of any race should be placed with any qualified parents without restriction or special conditions.

Bad news: Complainers are rewarded for complaining. Indicative of the victim culture in which we live, people have not only come to expect something for nothing, but are then rewarded for how loudly they can ventilate their sense of having been victims of fraud.

Writing a screenplay needs to be more than words on a page – and by the way, I think the words on the page are something you have to try to execute on the highest level you can; I’m not dismissing that by any regard.

It’s not that white guys shouldn’t be allowed to engage in discussions on race in America. But there’s nothing more exhausting than white male liberals‘ dogmatisms on race that were clearly formed during a conversation they had with that one black guy they met back in college.

Why do we cling to bigotry? Because bigotry, plainly, is convenient. It is a near-effortless way to both elevate one’s stature and make a pity grab in this culture of victims that we have become.

If some of us can get an Oscar for extolling that it’s hard out there for a pimp, why can’t others of us admonish: ‘Then quit acting like a pimp’?

Slavery was not a bad day on the job. It was not your boss yelling at you. It was not hard work for little pay. This was a full system of human subjugation.

I remember ‘Roots‘ growing up and the cultural impact it had on the country. Watching ‘Roots’ was not the cool remove of reading about slavery in a book or hearing about it in class. It became something that swept people along.

It is time to celebrate the New Black Americans – those who have sealed the Deal, who aren’t beholden to liberal indulgence any more than they are to the disdain of the hard Right. It is time to praise blacks who are merely undeniable in their individuality and exemplary in their levels of achievement.

There is not a country on earth whose people don’t deserve to be free and safe.

People of color grow up steeped in ‘white’ culture. The reverse is not true. And, no, listening to hip-hop on the way to work does not count as immersion.

I got a call saying that George Lucas wanted to meet me. Of all the phone calls I’ve received – Oliver Stone wants to meet you; Spike Lee wants to meet you – that was the one call I never in a million years thought was going to happen.

So, is Hollywood anti-religion? Not in my opinion. But unlike, say, politicians and preachers who talk faith before going off to speak in tongues to their mistresses, Hollywood just doesn’t wear its faith on its sleeve.

Bigots are actually funny to me in the way that people who still wear parachute pants give me a chuckle.

Much as banks don’t care where your money‘s coming from, the Electoral College is all ‘don’t ask, don’t care‘ when it comes to votes.

In every election cycle that I can recall, there comes a moment – or a few – where charges of elitism and claims of commonness are wielded by presidential candidates like a sword and shield: ‘Vote for me ’cause I’m one of you. It’s the other guy who’s out of touch.’

For the vast majority of those who are obese – those with a Body Mass Index over 30 – their size is their choice. They choose to take in more calories than they burn. They choose to take in high fat calories over low-fat ones. They choose to fad diet, if they choose to diet at all.

I still have my first ‘Black Lightning‘ that I got way back in the day, and my first ‘Steel.’ And I proudly display those comics, by the way. I have a lot of comics, but those are among the ones that mean the most to me.

From the moment we were first dumped in Jamestown and had our teeth checked before getting sold off and later considered three-fifths of a human being, an abundance of ‘likability’ hasn’t been something blacks have had to stockpile. Instead, it’s been a centuries-long battle for respectability.

Until politicos take a true stand in defense of marriage by proposing an anti-adultery amendment to the Constitution, stop demonizing gays and lesbians when the one debasing your marriage is the individual in the mirror.

I didn’t know I was a good director, and I mean that sincerely. I had done a film a long time ago called ‘Cold Around the Heart.’ Nobody saw it, and it didn’t turn out the way I wanted to.

Not only does Hollywood make money – it seems to make better movies during recessions. I’m sure a lot of studio executives wish we could have one every year.

Fact is, awards shows were never really about recognizing achievement. They were a publicity ploy cooked up in the late 1920s by MGM topper Louie Mayer and his newly formed Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences which was itself, back in the day, nothing but a front organization to discourage unionizing.

While most trudge through their days straight-jacketed in the social compact, living for others as much as or more than for themselves, a select few excel.

The hypocrisy and false piety of the deniers aside, the relationships of gays have no effect on heteros. Especially all the heteros who’ve done such a marvelous job of debasing marriage on their own all these many years.

To this day, the only argument against Obama that critics can seem to come up with involves admitting he’s better than them – though they certainly season it with some racism. You know, he’s that lucky black man who actually appeals to the populace. He’s that elitist who got himself off food stamps and into Harvard.

Yes, it’s hard to stay in shape, but it’s also hard to raise kids. That doesn’t mean you get to drop them off at your local fire station when they get to be a handful.

I don’t know what’s hipper: to Facebook or to Twitter. I just know for me, personally, discretion never went out of style.

I’m John the Fourth, so I think there’s a lot of things in life that have been truly handed to me by the hard work and the pain of others.