Top 64 Quotes & Sayings by Salim Akil

If there's a responsibility, it's just to be honest in what I've experienced and to put it in my work.

If anyone sees anything in 'Black Lightning' that seems foreign to them, then they haven't been paying attention. This is a uniquely American experience.

You can't protect your children from life.

Black Lightning, Jefferson Pierce, Thunder, and Lightning deserve their own show because they are not 'the other.' They are legitimate superheroes in their own right, and so they deserve the full breadth of exploration. That's what makes them worthy, and that's why they deserve it. They are not 'the other.' They are 'the the.'

If I'm walking down the street or taking my kids trick-or-treating, and I see some young girls or boys who are dressed up like Black Lightning, that, to me, would be success.

Come election time, black and white politicians put on their costumes of compassion and care, shake black hands, kiss black babies, sing 'We Shall Overcome' in black , and pray that we will ignore the reality of everyday suffering and the damage that is being done to our future in exchange for our votes.

When you're young, taking a risk doesn't necessarily feel like a risk because you're young.

I always approach storytelling with the idea that the audience will get it. They understand almost better than we do, because they get to watch it from an entirely different perspective with new eyes.

In popular culture, there is this notion that African-American men and women can't get together, and we're having these issues. I think it's an American problem because I know a lot of white women and men who are having just as many issues trying to find 'that person' as anyone.

Most guys have to go through this: When do you separate yourself from your friends? Some of them are going to go left, some of them are going to go right, some are going to go straight. And you have to go on your path.

If the only thing that was interesting about Jefferson Pierce is that he is African-American, I don't think we'd have much of a show.

What we tend to do in our shows, especially with 'Love Is_,' is to show the humanity of characters so that people can see themselves, one, and so that other cultures can see that we have more in common than we have not in common.

My mother, Betty, was an entertainer - she opened up for James Brown, Ike and Tina Turner - and I had an uncle who would work as a chef in a restaurant, 6-foot-3 or 6-foot-4. I was young, so he could have been shorter, but in my mind, that's how tall he was.

When you're given a certain amount of power - like, you're a writer and an employed writer, and you put pen to paper, and people are going to read what you write - that's power.

Nina Simone, to me, singing about black culture - she's unparalleled.

I never saw a true representation - an iconic hero - for myself. It just got boring, reading about all these really powerful and heroic white guys.

I came up seeing what a lot of young brothers see in this world, and you learn to deal with people with a long handle spoon in order to survive.

I have two little black boys. And a film like 'Do the Right Thing' can help illuminate the times for them with great storytelling.

In this larger conversation about diversity, we want to really show that we're all the same. We are all experiencing the same stories.

I tell my children, some people can be more talented than you. Some people can be faster, stronger, but there is never a reason for anyone to outwork you.

I had been pulled over quite a bit by police officers, especially in Santa Monica and Culver City.

Often, African-Americans' work is accepted as if we did something artistic by happenstance. It's almost like, 'They make TV shows the same way they dance. It's just natural!'

My wife asked me to marry her. But we did not jump the broom.

Black Lightning, Jefferson Pierce, is the American dream.

Oftentimes in a marriage, you really don't have to say anything. You can sort of have a conversation without words.

I was determined to make a movie - about families and a love story - that black women would be proud to see and which would depict them as being smart, loving, sensitive, sexy, and funny.

I feel like I have a responsibility to be true to who I am as an artist, first and foremost.

Like anyone else in television, I like to explore my life experience. And I don't think African-American artists see doing shows or art about African-Americans as something 'less than.' I think maybe the industry sometimes does. We don't get as much attention, we don't get critical acclaim and so on.

I thought I was an actor until they pointed the camera at me.

I don't walk around all the time thinking of myself as African American, but oftentimes in Hollywood, you are reminded of that in ways that can make you question your viability.

To me, Jefferson Pierce represented every side of me. I knew that I would be able to flesh him out.

I know and understand the result of extreme violence in my own life, in my friends' lives, and so I know what violence really is.

Women want you to feel that you're just as attracted to them today as you were when you first met them, and for me, that's the truth.

Jefferson Pierce is the epitome of what black men are: He loves his wife, his children, and the community.

I don't think I'll ever do a show with violence where there's no consequences, 'cause I know the consequences.

America has a strange relationship with its racial memory. Death has always been a constant companion of black people.

It's a wonderful thing to see 'Wonder Woman' directed by a woman. That did have an affect on the character, the , and the nuances of that film. That's the same thing my wife, Mara Brock Akil, and I are doing taking on 'Black Lightning.'

It's one thing to be a comic book fan, but when you have to create a character and put him in a suit and keep the story grounded in reality, the challenge sometimes is making sure he actually uses his powers.

I remember, as a kid, wearing the Batman costume for Halloween and feeling empowered by that as a kid.

If I see one kid dressed up like Thunder or Lightning or Black Lightning, I'll feel like I influenced the culture in a very positive way. That's the endgame for me. If this happens, my mission will be complete.

You change the landscape in Hollywood with action, not words.

I grew up, I had three uncles and... I loved Uncle Donald because he gave me dating advice, and I was, like, 5. But the other thing that I found fascinating about my Uncle Donald is he dressed up like a woman. And so I grew up around all of these men who dressed like women, so when I hear that, I don't hear a cause. I hear my family.

It doesn't make sense to constantly talk about the lack of diversity in Hollywood. We all know it's there. My wife and I just want to change that conversation with our work.

There are so many slices to the African-American experience. I mean, I have the whole ghetto pedigree. My mom was in jail, I didn't have any money, and I didn't go to a fancy college. But that's not the type of story I want to tell or feel the need to tell on film.

African American culture is American culture.

Michael Schultz's 'Cooley High' is a classic. Oftentimes, we don't get to see films about coming of age, especially for young African Americans.

Black folk have been 'the other' in shows and movies and in life for quite a long time. Not from our perspective, we're not 'the other,' but from other people's perspective we have been 'the other.'

It's less about Trump and more about the people... If the American people are willing to elect someone like that president, then that's more of a problem.

When you see a superhero that looks like you and lives in and fights in a neighborhood that is sort of like yours, it's empowering to a degree that makes you have hope. That is the power of storytelling, and that is the power of images.

I grew up around people with a bunch of serious problems.

We don't have a lot of black superheroes.

I think that people in America, unfortunately or fortunately, are just discovering different aspects of the humanity of African-American people. And so I think with that discovery comes, 'Oh, you could be a superhero; you could be president or whatever it is that we thought you couldn't be.'

A lot of African Americans, especially men, deal with this as a part of life. I've been pulled over by the police in my life, and I think I've only gotten a ticket once. It's just a part of everyday life, and it doesn't matter if you're in the car with your children or by yourself.

I've worked in a mortuary and seen the consequences of what guns and knives do to people.

If you bury me in a grave, don't ever come visit - because you won't find me there. You'll find me in the books that I've read, the music I've listened to, and the art I've created.

No matter how happy and peaceful you can be at a certain time, you always have this - at least, I do - paranoia or catastrophic thought that even now that I have all this peace and quiet, what's the next challenge? What's coming next? On a very human level, I think most people can identify with that.

There are so many families who do not come up in a traditional household. African Americans, Latins, and, I'm sure, whites as well, but there are a lot of men missing in African American communities and in Latin communities.

What I saw in Black Lightning, Jefferson Pierce, even the villains, are aspects of myself.

As an artist, I write and I do what I know and what creatively comes out of me, and I think that other artists should do the same thing.

I never like to do storytelling where everything is just copacetic right after that episode.