I was being offered three franchises at the same time - Pitch Black, XXX, and The Fast and the Furious - and I had to choose. I couldn`t do all three. - on why he didn`t do the Fast and the Furious sequel

On the Chronicles of Riddick: "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."

The video game culture was an important thing to keep alive in the film because we`re in a new era right now. The idea that kids can play video games like Grand Theft Auto or any video game is amazing. The video games are one step before a whole other virtual universe.

We all deal with being unfairly judged.

This isn`t a poster. This is a declaration of war! -Re: the XXX poster and what it means for his career

The more you know about the Dungeons and Dragons, the more you`ll see the thought process that went into the Chronicles of Riddick mythology.

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.

It would be flattering to call it a modern Dirty Harry, but I think this film deals more with the loss of his wife than the traditional revenge vigilante films.

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 till your ass falls off.

I haven`t had that many weird encounters with fans, thank God.

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".

My mother gave me this book called Feature Films at Used Car Prices by a guy named Rick Schmidt. I gotta credit the guy, cuz he gave me the most practical advice. It empowers you.

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 Furia.

If you take my performance or my understanding of the role and my appreciation for story and then dress it in CGI, that I guess becomes an action film.

I am definitely a person of color. - regarding his mysterious ethnicity

I`m not really afraid of the dark, except if I`m walking. The thing that scares me the most is the possibility of walking into a wall and busting my lip.

You break her heart, I`ll break your neck.

The whole year I was in LA I got into telemarketing and learned how to make money. Five years later that skill helped me make my first film.

You know when something feels so good but you`re afraid to feel good about it? So you kinda hold back? Everyone says, Congratulations, you must be so happy. And you say something stupid like, I`m just doing what little I can with what little I have.

If you had asked me back in grade school what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have said my first choice was an actor, but if I couldn`t be that, I`d want to be a superhero.

You live these three months in this reality, in this dark reality. You don`t want to do those films every year because they`re taxing. I started smoking a lot of cigarettes.

If you`re the type of person who has to fulfill your dreams, you`ve gotta be resourceful to make sure you can do it. I came out to California when I was 21, thinking my New York credentials would take me all the way. I came back home a year later all dejected and a failure.

I was walking around with the babies so much that when I got to the Sidney Lumet picture, I would be on set in between takes and I`d be rocking back and forth. Just standing like this rocking back and forth, and Sidney would say, Why are you walking like that in between takes?

I am flattered that they think that many people would enjoy my work. I don`t approach any genre a different way than I may approach another one. I treat every role I do like a role worthy of applying whatever kind of tactic, process and talent I have.

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

The thing that stood out above and beyond all the experiences was this relationship with the nine-month-old baby. On weekends, I`d be thinking about going back to set on Monday just to see the baby.

It was interesting to do a completely fictional piece. You know, Saving Private Ryan was not a fictional piece! So the challenge was: How do you incorporate real emotions? How do you incorporate aspects that people are going to be able to identify with?

From the very very beginning, when everyone thought it was crazy, I was thinking of The Chronicles of Riddick as a trilogy. That would start with the movie you saw, and Pitch Black 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 Furia, to deal with the homeland.

"If a Henry Jaglom film doesn`t make you feel confident enough to make films", he joked later "I don`t know what will".

"I`ve worked out for years", he explained later "For a long time it was my only sense of gratification".

"That was the first time I was ever able to make a whole audience laugh", he later recalled "without getting sent to the Dean`s office".