Top 100 John Ridley Quotes

#1. The things that I've enjoyed most are not really science fiction. They are not much fun to make because there are so many toys involved. They are fun for directors who like toys, like Ridley Scott, but they are not a lot of fun to make. A lot of hanging around, changing this and that.

John Hurt

John Ridley Quotes #1124868
#2. There are still some people out there who believe comic books are nothing more than, well, comic books. But the true cognoscenti know graphic novels are - at their best - an amazing blend of art literature and the theater of the mind.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1313088
#3. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1269830
#4. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1268376
#5. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1263251
#6. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1247650
#7. If the Olympic Games ever served a true altruistic purpose, they have long since outlived it. Yeah, the pursuit of athletic excellence, sportsmanship and international goodwill is plenty noble. But the modern Olympics are at best a vehicle for agitprop; at worst, a scandal magnet.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1243537
#8. Slavery is something that affects all of us. It's all of our history.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1237575
#9. It's funny: over time, if you're fortunate, you build a nice career, and you have these interesting moments, and I would not, looking back, trade any of them - 'Red Tails,' '12 Years a Slave' and 'Undercover Brother.'

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1220853
#10. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1193506
#11. I want to explore different topics and present them in slightly different ways.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1161308
#12. I never wanted to show up and just say, "Okay, what are we doing today? Let's wing it!"

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1148370
#13. It does no good to believe in what does not exist to the point one cannot focus on what is real. That would be the greatest tragedy of any 'conspiracy.'

John Ridley

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#14. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1315556
#15. Whatever you do, whether you're doing a television drama or a romantic comedy, you want to be relevant, to some degree.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1112465
#16. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1105721
#17. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1081314
#18. 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.'

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1078948
#19. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1067725
#20. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1052121
#21. Bigots are actually funny to me in the way that people who still wear parachute pants give me a chuckle.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1044424
#22. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #990546
#23. The thing about working in Hollywood is that, at some point, you really get tired of hearing how godless you are, and how if you and the rest of the heathens in Tinsel town would put more God-centric shows on TV, people wouldn't be abandoning prime time in favor of their Bible study classes.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #985486
#24. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #977657
#25. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #965471
#26. A personal game-changer was when Ridley Scott cast me as King John, the King of England, for 'Robin Hood.'

Oscar Isaac

John Ridley Quotes #1502043
#27. If art is singular expression, then by nature, the best art is controversial. But when art stirs debate for reasons besides its artistic integrity, that's when things get bent.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1840573
#28. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1821028
#29. Quite simply, quite plainly, just by virtue of his being, Obama is America. The first true American to lead our nation.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1818512
#30. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1773290
#31. Facts tend to take the punch out of a good hate rant and are therefore left best unsaid.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1713508
#32. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1677108
#33. With fear of stating the obvious: Freedom belongs to 'We the People,' not 'They the Politicians.'

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1666025
#34. There remains a degree of anti-black intellectualism in entertainment. Middle and upper-middle class blacks have often been portrayed as buffoons in popular culture; witness the characters of Carlton Banks on 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air' and Braxton P. Hartnabrig on 'The Jamie Foxx Show.'

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1658371
#35. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1646323
#36. Old white guys can be a funny bunch, can't they? The same anti-same-sex marriage, anti-affirmative action cadre can flower into the biggest supporters of 'equality' the minute they get a whiff of minority empowerment.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1559817
#37. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1537781
#38. Depending on which side you're on, maybe the police are too objective and need to be a bit more subjective.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1529591
#39. Obama is the New Generation and the hot light of a dawn that goes way beyond clever talk of morning in America.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #956097
#40. Oh, happy day when the enemies of ascendancy have got to confess that people of color rock.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1487845
#41. Working with Ridley is working with one of the great filmmakers and one of the great raconteurs. You know, it's like, a dinner with Ridley Scott or a dinner with Martin Scorsese? You just want to cut your arm off to get those.

John Logan

John Ridley Quotes #1430745
#42. There is not a country on earth whose people don't deserve to be free and safe.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1410123
#43. I've written films that are violent. I'm not big on sitting and watching violence.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1408714
#44. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1401601
#45. Even I haven't downed enough L.A. Kool-Aid to believe that somehow Hollywood movies are an overt instrument of morality.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1393905
#46. I love Hap and Leonard and plan to write more about them, but not exclusively about them. I have always worked in film, or since the eighties, but my screenplays - though I got paid and did screenplays for Ridley Scott and John Irvin and Mark Romanek - seldom got made.

Joe R. Lansdale

John Ridley Quotes #1382487
#47. It's hard to imagine a place like that really exists. People have been judging me my whole life.

Kami Garcia

John Ridley Quotes #1371389
#48. We all hope that the police and prosecutors are objective. That's their job, but sometimes it's not true.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1352496
#49. Let's be very clear: Living 'unforgiven' is not the sole domain of blacks. It can be found in any successful person.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1347546
#50. When entertainment works the best, you're creating an apparatus to convey emotions.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #1344853
#51. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #191350
#52. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #446308
#53. When times are tough, people want to escape to somewhere fantastic without having to pay actual escape-to-somewhere-fantastic cash. And offering a couple of hours away from the ordinary is what the movies do best.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #425742
#54. Awards shows have devolved into self-parodies - liberals in limos, corny insider jokes delivered by the hosts among bad teleprompter reading from the some of the best thespians on the planet.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #416578
#55. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #405830
#56. Why is it that the very people who have fought so hard and so long for the simple entitlement to love whom they choose to love are the very ones denied that right by those who routinely take their vows for granted?

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #404835
#57. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #403289
#58. If the American public is so into morality in movies, why don't they throw more of their disposable income at religious-themed entertainment? For every 'Passion of the Christ,' there's a 'Fireproof' that comes and goes with no notice.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #347318
#59. 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?

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #321847
#60. I've no desire to start a movement, to be the first name on an open petition, or to be the poster child for disgruntled writers.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #315799
#61. I understand politicos gotta make bank. But cloistering with the Hollywood elite is not how you prove you're a man of the people.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #209514
#62. As long as we remain committed to holding high our individuals of supreme finish, others will be inspired to loose themselves of the gravity of the waywards and downtroddens.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #205998
#63. Conservative talkers love to throw numbers around: their ratings and their audience size. And to be sure, they have a sizable audience which numbers in the tens of millions. But having people tune in and being able to dictate their actions are two different things.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #195395
#64. When people come in the door and they have something, discovering and exploring the character is a real joy.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #485657
#65. When I go to business meetings, I'm still told way too often by some receptionist, 'The mail room is downstairs,' to believe that racial perceptions don't still exist. But I figure there are always going to be knuckleheads no matter how many of their herd get stuck in the tar pits of progress.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #171630
#66. Our touchstones of slavery are 'Song of the South,' 'Gone With the Wind' and 'The Birth of a Nation.' It's hard to separate the cinematic quality from the underlying themes. I appreciate the films, but the message was repugnant.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #151450
#67. I love graphic novels - I love reading them, I enjoyed writing them, I would love to go back and do them again. I hope I'm savvy enough to do them in the right way.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #134981
#68. I don't want an underachiever working on my car's transmission. Why would I want someone regular sitting in the Oval Office? Sorry, give me somebody who has demonstrated a capacity to excel.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #128510
#69. Just mention the idea of warrantless wiretaps and expect to get hit up with a congressional investigation. But give somebody an avatar and a URL, and he can't tweet, post or hyperlink enough personal information about himself to as many people as possible.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #125849
#70. 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.'

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #125556
#71. I don't know when I made that active decision to be a writer or to try to write, but I know I always liked storytelling.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #123181
#72. At the risk of sounding like that old guy in 'Gran Torino' telling those 'young punks' to 'get off my lawn,' it's gotten to the point that whenever I hear somebody talking about Twitter or twittering or tweeting, it just makes my little tummy want to hurl.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #102104
#73. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #87857
#74. Gay marriage will be universally accepted in time. But if I may be so bold as to say to gays and lesbians, don't wait for that time to arrive. Just as my father and his generation did not 'wait' for their civil rights, nor should you. The toothpaste ain't going back in the tube. The tide has turned.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #87377
#75. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #61225
#76. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #623182
#77. My kids will find me walking around the house talking to myself and think I'm going crazy. I like to read the scripts out loud and really get the rhythm for the dialogue.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #946852
#78. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #908576
#79. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #815897
#80. For every horrific event, something beautiful happens.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #787109
#81. I think I'm an overly emotional person. I feel a lot, but I don't believe that's unique to me or that's how I am able to do the things I do.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #773706
#82. White folks, no matter how well-meaning or open-minded, have no true idea what it's like to be black in America. That's not a slam against white people or an accusation of latent bigotry. But the fact is that we all live in an Anglo-dominated society.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #767382
#83. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #749255
#84. Seriously, you know - I love to write. I enjoy the process; I enjoy the different processes, because writing for film and television and graphic novels is all very different. So I've never had the feeling of, 'Oh, you have to do this one thing.'

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #745199
#85. Mistake number one: don't ever expect a woman to do what you think she's going to do.
Mistake number two: don't ever tell her what to do because that's a surefire way of making sure she doesn't. - cowboy John

Ridley Pearson

John Ridley Quotes #693277
#86. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #670207
#87. 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'?

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #637777
#88. The great thing about working with NPR - and, really, there's like a million of 'em - is all the cool stuff I get to do for the public. Meet the president. Hang out at the National Finals Rodeo in Vegas. Drink a $10,000 martini.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #624724
#89. When I was young and I look at the things that I wrote - I don't think that was the word they used back then, but they had a hipster sensibility. They were a little irreverent.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #24056
#90. There's no substitute for imagination, but creativity is only enhanced when forged with life experience.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #622151
#91. 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' made me want to make films. I am wild about the films of John Carpenter, Ridley Scott, Howard Hawks and Sam Peckinpah.

Neil Marshall

John Ridley Quotes #607223
#92. Fanboys are a creator's blessing and curse. If a fanboy likes you, they love you. Obsessively. If you cross them with some plot point or story direction they reject, expect to be wholly and continually eviscerated across the Internet.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #593904
#93. Republicans can be a funny bunch. They're against affirmative action, but they always seem to be able to find people of color to fill a slot just when they're most needed.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #572535
#94. As a writer, as a storyteller, you have to have your emotions close, and the older I've gotten, the less I've worried about not displaying emotions.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #562838
#95. At an early age, I knew there were a lot of things I couldn't do. My father was a doctor, and my mother was a teacher. I knew I wasn't good in numbers, and I knew I wouldn't work well in overly structured environments.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #552339
#96. I'm sorry, but chick fights are sexy. If you don't think so, you're either an uptight woman or a lying man.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #529814
#97. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #524084
#98. You can treat faith as part of people's it's lives.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #508542
#99. I like animals. I like people who like animals. I hate people who love animals to the point they lose their sense of reason. I'm talking the 'my computer wallpaper is my dog,' 'I hang a Christmas stocking for my cat' crowd.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #508125
#100. 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.

John Ridley

John Ridley Quotes #486278

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