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
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
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
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
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
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
Bigots are actually funny to me in the way that people who still wear parachute pants give me a chuckle. – John Ridley
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
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
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
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. – John Ridley
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
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
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
As far as superhero stories, what’s appealing is of course that aspect of wish fulfillment. I mean, you start out reading them as a kid, and a couple things jump out at you – there are heroes out there, and you wish you could run into a phone booth and change your life, or be like Peter Parker and put on a mask and become a hero. – John Ridley
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
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
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