Mike Colter

“I respond to women who have their stuff together, who are in charge, who don't need men to do things for them. I want a woman to have her own thing, you know? My wife is very smart. She's got a doctorate degree; she's got her own career going. She doesn't need me to take care of her.”

“Cops and criminals aren't that different. They just play by different sets of rules. And the lines get blurred. There's no such thing as 'right' and 'wrong.' There's always a grey area. There are always hypocrisies.”

“My mother wanted to be an actress. She wanted to follow her dreams, and she never really got a chance to do that. I feel like I'm following her dream in a way.”

“I think, in a career, you have several breaks that lead to a big break. Small things here and there all add up to cracking away at the dam. Then the dam breaks.”

“A lot of times in life, women want to talk, but men don't want to listen, and if they do want to listen, they turn it back to themselves.”

“I am not walking around looking like Luke Cage does at all.”

“Some people act like there is so much mystery in getting fit, but the only secret there is to making it happen is time.”

“Comic book heroes are an important part of our culture, so I think we're actually utilizing comic book heroes in a much more in-depth way than before. They have such potential, and I think we're maximizing the potential.”

“If you're not enjoying your work, what's the point?”

“People forget, most of the times we audition with people who aren't necessarily actors. So it doesn't matter who or what's in front of you: you still have to have the same realism and invested emotions.”

“Luke Cage isn't going to throw a pity party for himself. He literally says to himself, 'This is the world I'm in. These are the circumstances I have.' He's a self-made man. He's trying to continuously build, and that's what's interesting about him. He's a work in progress.”

“It's always fun to play a character that bends the rules.”

“I got lucky. To be frank, I was surrounded by white teachers who never did the whole, 'You're never going to amount to nothing' thing you hear about in the South. Instead, they would say, 'You're really smart. You can do this.' If I hadn't gotten that, I don't know where I'd be.”