15 Best Luke Cage Quotes (TV Shows & Comics)

Luke Cage is an awesome Marvel character who first appeared in Hero for Hire #1 in 1972. Since then, the Power Man constantly rose in popularity, culminating in a Marvel Netflix TV show where Luke Cage was the titular character. 

The series, as well as his appearances in other shows, such as Jessica Jones and The Defenders, really showed why he’s such a beloved character. His cool demeanor behind such brutal force of a guy made him so interesting to fans. Here are the best 15 Luke Cage quotes from the TV series and the comics to help you understand what I’m talking about.

Luke Cage Quotes From The TV Show(s)

“Pops always said, if you don’t feel good going to work, you should find new work.”

This Luke Cage quote actually came in Jessica Jones Season One, Episode One. That’s the first time we’ve ever seen Luke Cage on the screen – his own series arrived on Netflix later.

Jessica Jones works numerous jobs that make her miserable just to get by. She doesn’t enjoy the line of work she’s in but doesn’t do much to change that. Enter, Luke Cage.

He sees Jessica is struggling, so he offers a piece of advice that Pop once gave him. If you don’t like your job, change it. We all often get somewhat trapped in our routine, scared of making a change, even if we’re unhappy with the way things are. Unhappy security feels better than taking chances. But, if you want to live life to the fullest, find work that fulfills you, as well.

Jessica eventually did find work better suited for her, so props to Luke for opening her eyes.

“You’re absolutely right. I’m not gonna touch him. Not the way I should. Since I can’t touch the king, I’m gonna take his queen, his knights… his rooks… I’m knocking all his pieces off the board.”

In the episode Who’s Gonna Take the Weight from Luke Cage Season One, Luke weighs his options. As he tries to clean Harlem from crime, Luke realizes he can’t touch the top guy just yet – you can’t skip the game and just defeat the final boss, am I right?

Well, Luke Cage uses a different analogy. In chess, you can’t go around all the pieces and go straight for the king. When Luke says he’s going to knock all the other pieces off the board, he’s saying that he’s not afraid to go through the ranks and clean the board before going for the king.

That means starting from the lowest-ranked petty criminals and working his way up. That’s the only way – if you want to clean a hood from crime, you need to eradicate it completely.

“Me? It’s my show.”

In Season Two, Episode On and On, Luke Cage talks to Misty, telling her he’s not “in the market for a sidekick.” she reiterates, asking, “Who says you’re not my sidekick?” Then Luke delivers this epic line that could be interpreted in two ways.

First, saying “my show” means Luke is running the operation by himself and needs no help doing so. Second, it means it’s literally his show – a show called Luke Cage. It was a fun play of words that the writers used as a semi fourth-wall break, and it was delivered perfectly.

“I ain’t guilty. But I ain’t innocent either.”

Luke Cage usually operates as a superhero. However, his history is troubled – he wasn’t always the good guy, both in the comics and the series. In the comics, he was a petty criminal who got locked up and suffered experiments in prison that gave him superpowers.

In the TV show, Luke is a former cop who wasn’t as clean as a whistle, but he was framed for some stuff he didn’t commit, giving birth to this quote that perfectly sums up Luke Cage’s character. Although he works as a hero, he’s not as innocent as one might think.

“I’ll enforce the unwritten rules while you enforce the written ones.”

This is a quote from the Luke Cage Season Two episode; They Reminisce Over You. Luke is talking about the law of the court and the law of the streets. When he says, “you enforce the written ones [rules],” Luke is speaking about the law, which ought to be enforced by the proper authorities.

But, when he says he’ll enforce the unwritten rules, well, you know what that means. Luke is taking matters into his own hands. The unwritten rule is if you make it personal, you’ll pay personally. As simple as that.

“You wanna hire this hero? The price just doubled.”

Even heroes get sick and tired of everything. In the comics, Luke Cage worked almost exclusively as a Hero for Hire – if the price is right, Luke will do the job for you. In the series, he was a bit more morally guided but showed personality traits carrying over from the comics.

This quote where he asks: “you wanna hire a hero?” and then doubles the price is textbook Luke Cage from the comics, which is why I genuinely loved the All Souled Out episode in Luke Cage Season 2.

“People are scared, but they can’t be paralyzed by that fear. You have to fight for what’s right every single day, bulletproof skin or not. You can’t just not snitch, or turn away or take money under the table because life has turned you sour.”

In Season One’s episode called You Know My Steez, Luke Cage talks about the responsibility every person has to fight injustice. It’s sort of an epiphany for Luke, who realizes that you can’t just turn around and walk away – you have an obligation to fight for what’s right.

“I’m about sick of always having to buy new clothes.”

Having impenetrable, bulletproof skin is awesome. However, Luke’s clothes aren’t bulletproof. And it gets destroyed. A lot. I mean, I feel for the guy. I get all anxious when I have to buy a new pair of jeans after the old ones literally wear out. The guy will declare bankruptcy if he doesn’t take better care of his fit.

It was a funny quote from the Season One Episode, Manifest, which explains Luke’s impenetrable skin in a funny, witty way.

Luke Cage Quotes From The Comics

“We have to– we have to do what’s right for her. It’s all about her. Everything we do from now on. It’s all about her. I know we knew that in theory, but this is it. This is how it has to be.”

Luke Cage and Jessica Jones love their superhero work. It’s their everything – until they get a child. This quote perfectly sums up what the life of any parent should look like. It’s one thing to live dangerously and put your life on the line when you have nobody else to take care of.

However, after Luke and Jess get Danielle, even they realize they have to focus everything they do to make her safe and provide the best possible life for her. It was amazing seeing two such hard, emotionless characters first find true love and then express this kind of love for another being.

“You pay me to work — I like to earn my pay.”

Luke Cage doesn’t take every job offered to him. However, if he takes the job, you can bet he’ll finish it. Therefore, when Laura and Catherine Forsythe pay him to help find out who’s trying to kill their grandfather in Hero for Hire Vol. 1 #6, he promises to deliver on his word.

The quote really shows who Luke Cage is and what makes the character such a fan favorite. The Power Man is a man of his word.

“SWEET JUMPIN’ SISTER!”

“Sweet sister” is somewhat of Luke Cage’s catchphrase, as the character repeats it on numerous occasions, in a million different ways, be it “sweet jumpin’ sister” like in Power Man Vol. 1 #22, or something like “sweet Christmas.”

“I got skin like steel and muscles to match.”

Not only is Luke Cage extremely durable due to his impenetrable skin. The experiments he underwent made his muscles just as hard, giving Luke awesome superhuman strength. If you’re a criminal, you do NOT want to get into a fight with this guy. The guys in Power Man and Iron Fist Vol. 1 #69 learn that the hard way.

“I want to say that I should tell ya that over the last couple of months I seem to… I seem to be thinking about you… A lot. More than I was admitting to myself. You know what I mean?”

Alias Vol. 1 #28 was the first time that Luke Cage expressed interest in Jessica Jones. He was a bit goofy with it, which I found kind of funny. You can tell that she really liked Jess. This quote was the beginning of one of the fan-favorite relationships in Marvel comics.

“Danny Rand never cried… Except the one time.”

Danny Rand, aka Iron Fist, and Luke Cage go a long way together. They are buddies in the comics and the Marvel Netflix series, and there’s never love lost between the two – especially with the kind of roasting you can only tolerate from a friend.

The quote came from The Pulse Vol. 1 #3, where Luke jokes about Danny crying. Whether the crying really happened or not is irrelevant. The joke landed perfectly.

“ Only one thing will tell me the battle was won. That the fight was over. And that is one day I am going to go for a walk. A free man of convictions. And I said to myself, if I ever get to do that again, I’ll know, on that day…we won.”

Despite all the good that he’s done, Luke Cage still has to walk around under a false identity, as he’s still a wanted man. In New Avengers Finale Vol. 1 #1, he explains that he will feel like the fight is over until he can walk the streets like any other man – no convictions, no hiding, just living.