The people who are trying to make this world worse are not taking a day off. How can I? Light up the darkness
Not Bob Marley — a line from the film ‘I Am Legend’Mark Protosevich & Akiva Goldsman (screenwriters)Written for “I Am Legend” · released 2007 · Warner Bros.
These exact words are spoken by Robert Neville (Will Smith) in the 2007 film “I Am Legend,” where he retells a Bob Marley anecdote. Wikiquote files the line under “Misattributed”, noting there is no indication Marley ever spoke them; the phrasing — especially “Light up the darkness” — is scripted movie dialogue by writers Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman.
“The people who are trying to make this world worse are not taking a day off. How can I? Light up the darkness” Line written for Robert Neville in the film I Am Legend (2007), screenplay by Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman — not a Bob Marley quotation.
⚠ The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Bob Marley. Use the credit shown above instead.
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In context
Evoking the world of Mark Protosevich & Akiva Goldsman — dir. Francis Lawrence · Warner Bros.. Theme: "The people who are trying to make this world worse are not taking a day off. How can I? Light up the darkness". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Minimalist
Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "The people who are trying to make this world worse are not taking a day off. How can I? Light up the darkness". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Provenance
Where the line actually comes from
Origin
I Am Legend (2007 film)
Spoken by
Robert Neville (Will Smith), retelling a Bob Marley story
Written by
Mark Protosevich & Akiva Goldsman
Status
Misattributed to Bob Marley (Wikiquote)
He believed that you could cure racism and hate… literally cure it, by injecting music and love into people’s lives. When he was scheduled to perform at a peace rally, a gunman came to his house and shot him down. Two days later he walked out on that stage and sang. When they asked him why, he said, “The people who are trying to make this world worse are not taking a day off. How can I? Light up the darkness.”
Robert Neville’s dialogue in “I Am Legend” (2007). The framing story is loosely inspired by a real event — Marley was shot on 3 December 1976 and still performed at the Smile Jamaica Concert two days later — but the quoted words themselves are the screenwriters’.
The wording first appears as scripted dialogue in Warner Bros.’ 2007 film “I Am Legend,” so the line is in copyright as part of that screenplay. It is not a Bob Marley quotation and has no public-domain status.
Fact-check
How a movie line became a “Bob Marley quote”
This is one of the most widely circulated fake Bob Marley quotes online — and its origin is unusually easy to pin down. The words were written for a Hollywood film.
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the entire quotationBob Marley misattributed
The line is spoken by Robert Neville (Will Smith) in the 2007 film “I Am Legend,” retelling a Marley story. Wikiquote places it in its Misattributed section, noting “there is no indication that the quoted words were actually spoken by Bob Marley.” No interview, recording, or transcript documents Marley saying this — and “Light up the darkness” is a screenwriters’ flourish, not his phrasing.
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the viral spreadTaika Waititi (as a spreader, not originator) amplified
The filmmaker publicly shared the line as Marley’s in March 2019, an instance recorded on Wikiquote that helped push the movie dialogue further into circulation as a genuine quote.
The film’s anecdote is loosely rooted in fact. On 3 December 1976, gunmen stormed Bob Marley’s home at 56 Hope Road in Kingston and wounded him, his wife Rita, and manager Don Taylor, days before a free concert amid Jamaica’s violent election season. Two days later, Marley still performed a roughly 90-minute set at the Smile Jamaica Concert on 5 December, at one point baring his wounded arm and telling the crowd “Bang bang, I’m OK.”
That courage is real and documented. What is not documented is the specific, tidy quotation the internet attaches to it. The screenwriters distilled the spirit of the moment into a memorable line for Will Smith’s character — and the line later escaped the movie and got pinned on Marley himself.
The courage was real. The quotation is a screenwriter’s line.
Read the full story
Marley went into brief hiding after the shooting and left Jamaica soon after, recording much of the album “Exodus” abroad in 1977.
Because the words are catalogued as misattributed rather than tied to any Marley text, they carry no public-domain status — the phrasing belongs to a 2007 screenplay.
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Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
Screenwriters of I Am Legend (2007) · dir. Francis Lawrence · Warner Bros.
Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman wrote the screenplay for the 2007 sci-fi film I Am Legend, directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Will Smith. The “make this world worse… light up the darkness” speech is delivered by Smith’s character, Robert Neville, as a piece of in-story dialogue about Bob Marley — not a documented Marley quotation. Goldsman is an Academy Award–winning screenwriter (A Beautiful Mind).
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Film screenplay (2007)
Robert Neville (character), dialogue in I Am Legend, directed by Francis Lawrence, screenplay by Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman (Burbank, CA: Warner Bros. Pictures, 2007). Cataloged as misattributed to Bob Marley by Wikiquote.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘The people who are trying to make this world worse are not taking a day off. How can I? Light up the darkness’?” Last verified 14 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/the-people-who-are-trying-to-make-this-world-worse-are-not