Quotes

Well, I've worked out for years. For a long time it was my only sense of gratification.

I would get into fights with other bouncers when a guy was already on the floor and the other guys thought it was alright to jump up in the air and land on the guy's head.

[on why he didn't do the "Fast and the Furious" sequel] I was being offered three franchises at the same time: Pitch Black (2000), xXx (2002) and The Fast and the Furious (2001) -- and I had to choose. I couldn't do all three. [he has since appeared in sequels to all three franchises]

[on the xXx (2002) poster and what it means for his career] This isn't a poster. This is a declaration of war!

[on his mysterious ethnicity] I am definitely a person of color.

[on the planned "Chronicles of Riddick" trilogy] We gave the script to the studio, I bought three leather binders. One said C1, one said C2 and one said C3. They all had locks on them and we only gave the key to C1 to the studio"

In the next film, Riddick is going to go to the underverse. Riddick will act with new elementals. Not air elementals [as Judi Dench's character is] but fire and water. It'll come full circle in C3 when he must return to Furya.

[on The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)] The concept behind switching genres was to create a film that you could continue exploring. In the ending of this movie, it's not just something that says we're opening it up so we can tell another story, it's very specific. A very daring ending because it's left open-ended.

From the very very beginning, when everyone thought it was crazy, I was thinking of The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) as a trilogy. That would start with the movie you saw, and Pitch Black (2000) would act as a prequel that introduced you to the character. So in simple terms, in Chronicles 2 we venture to the Underverse. We knew we could get away with a PG-13 on the first one, but once you go to the Underverse it's rated R, because it's a place where war is the norm and there is constant, constant battling. Then on Chronicles 3 we will see Riddick return to Furya, to deal with the homeland.

I was a bouncer for nine years - it was all I knew how to do - and my training was not to talk loosely... That's still my thought process: Shut your mouth, watch your back and keep working 'til your ass falls off.

With age, you get to a place where you don't want to knock people out. You just want to give people a hug.

When people view me, they don't necessarily see a black man. For that reason, a film like Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) or Driving Miss Daisy (1989) could never work with me in it.

I am truly multi-racial. I never knew my biological father. I've always had less information than I would have liked to have had. All I know from my mother is that I have connections to many different cultures.

[on Multi-Facial (1995)] That film is my tribute to my background. The man who raised me is black. Culturally, he made me who I am. He was a theatre director, so he also guided me artistically.

I act because it's the one time I'm sure of my identity. There's no doubt. It's on paper.

We're in a gaming society now, so people are conditioned to work a little bit for their story. People like to be rewarded for whatever equity they put into your universe.

[on the Fast & Furious and Riddick franchises]: My whole approach to making these movies and to creating these sagas is saying to the studio, 'The audience is paying attention to the nuances and all the story points that lead up to this film. The more you acknowledge that, the better movie you have.'

[on Multi-Facial (1995)] I guess I've always looked past the exterior and the ambiguity that my existence represents. When I was in my mother's stomach, it was still illegal in parts of America for people of color and white people to procreate. Everyone had known me just as a bouncer in New York because I wasn't able to get any work. There was something too ambiguous about the way I look that would prevent me from ever getting a star.

My mom used to say that I became a fighter and a scrapper and a tough guy to protect whom I am at my core. This exterior means that I am actually one of the few people who can show love without coming across as soft.