I saw how, when my brother smoked reefer, it made my mother cry. He was 16 at the time. And I saw that she broke down and cried. I never wanted to hurt my mother, so I kept away from drugs. – Ving Rhames
Are you intimidated by me? Because if you’re intimidated by me, that’s something you’ll have to deal with. – Ving Rhames
Most American actors are taught the Stanislavsky method… Method acting, but I really think that as an actor you have to develop what works for you. There is really not one way of doing anything. There are many ways of achieving the same goal. – Ving Rhames
Since God is the foundation of my life, anything that streams from that can only be positive. – Ving Rhames
If someone’s intimidated by me, that’s something they have to deal with. When I walk down the streets of New York and an old woman grabs her purse when I pass by, I’m not going to give it a whole lot of energy because I’m not in the wrong. I’m a millionaire, and I’m not thinking about grabbing an old woman’s purse. – Ving Rhames
I think there’s so much we don’t know and the unknown in the ocean; every 10 years or so, we find some fossil that’s been there before mankind. – Ving Rhames
When I look at the world, I recognize that unfortunately, it sometimes takes an atrocity like 9/11 to force us to come together. – Ving Rhames
Quite honestly I never had a desire to be an actor. I tell people, ‘I did not choose acting; acting chose me.’ I never grew up wanting to be an actor. I wanted to play football. – Ving Rhames
You can feel I am whatever you want to feel I am. God knows who I am, and I know who I am. – Ving Rhames
I was more interested in playing sports than acting. I didn’t take acting too seriously until the end of my junior year. – Ving Rhames
I try to allow the spirit of the character to live through me. That’s the only way I know how to approach acting. I have to live it. – Ving Rhames
There’s really not that much difference between you and I. And my name really doesn’t matter. Hopefully, my heart and my spirit matters to you. Hopefully. – Ving Rhames
A lot of times, scripts are written so the character is all one way. Even with ‘Bringing Out the Dead,’ the character was written a little more generic. – Ving Rhames
I grew up in a poverty-stricken neighborhood, but I didn’t really know I was a deprived, poverty-stricken child until the media made me aware of it. – Ving Rhames
When I think of the trials and tribulations that black men go through in America and that black artists went through, I feel very privileged. – Ving Rhames
I’ve always been taught to just play the truth of the situation. If comedy comes out of that, or drama, whatever comes out of it, at least I’m playing the truth of the moment-to-moment reality. – Ving Rhames