Quotes from Richard Cabral

Art saved my life.

The lifestyle that I grew up in, it was passed on to me. I didn't know there was another world.

In society, you are taught to belong. You have to belong to something.

Nobody succeeds on their own. Someone has to be there to show them the way, and if you give that experience to a person on the street - a gang member, a prisoner - he might succeed. That's how it was for me.

Majority of minds are warped into the belief of the only person worth helping is themself.

I grew up in East Los Angeles, which is the biggest population of Mexican-Americans in America. I was born and raised there.

I believe God talks to us in mysterious ways. I knew if I did not pay attention to His message, I was going to do life in prison, or I was going to end up dead.

I spent my life behind bars, and what people don't know is getting out of prison is really nerve-racking - you're not used to society; you're not used to the world going by so fast - so to step on that lot was quite overwhelming.

It's about being a voice in the community. There's so many ways to be a voice, and that's what I'm figuring out.

I never became an actor for people to want to take pictures with me or wanting my autograph. I feel I am nothing more special than the next living soul, but I understand that I work in entertainment, and this attraction comes with the territory.

I can't point my finger on a 'dream role,' but the days that I'm able to fulfill the stories of the 'hood/barrio on film, those will be great days.

My father figures were all gang members.

Just like the rest of the world, I became a product of my environment, and this environment was gang culture.

I think 98% of gang members in Los Angeles would agree that being a gang is just like being part of a community.

My family had been involved in gangs since the 1970s.

I didn't grow up with any brothers, but I have my cousins, and I had my good friends, so I know what it is to have that bro relationship.

Homeboy Industries is a healing center for broken children. I was a broken child, and they showed me how to put all those pieces back together. It's not about being a gangster. It's about being a man or a woman trying to recover and live better.

Through sharing my pain, I can possibly heal your pain. There is no other feeling like it. Money doesn't compare. This is the true meaning of art.

Being an artist, being an actor, it's about telling stories that could heal, that could open up discussion that could make the community better.

Audiences are more drawn in to what they can relate to, so it would be stupid not to have great Latino films for the Latino audience.

If we grow up in these communities where we have gangs, well, what do you think we're going to belong to? That's what happened to me and what's still happening to hundreds of thousands of other individuals.

I remember my first thing was 'CSI: Miami.' I played a Cuban gangster. And that was it. I was like, 'Wow, I don't have to clean toilets.' I could actually dress up and get paid equivalent to that. So that was my introduction into the Hollywood industry.

If you grow up on the good side of the tracks, you're going to belong to something over there. If you grow up on the bad side of the tracks, you're going to belong to something over there. It's not rocket science.

I'm definitely not joking around on set.