Mickey Rourke

“When you're young, working in a warehouse or selling hot dogs, you look at work - at acting - as something precious. It gets you out of the stink.”

“I was very immature when I was young, and for me there was no balance. Everything was just all or nothing.”

“Sometimes the independent movies can get a little too arty-farty. You watch the IFC Channel and you want to throw up. You don't always have to take things so serious, you know.”

“What I've got to do now is let them judge me for who I am as an actor and not for my notoriety.”

“Wrestling and boxing is like Ping-Pong and rugby. There's no connection.”

“It's no fun being a loser. Trust me.”

“Usually if you read a screenplay, no matter who's writing it, the bad guy is always written as a one-dimensional bad guy.”

“I don't mind getting punched in the nose by a guy standing in front of me. It's getting stabbed in the back that I can't handle.”

“I trained like an animal, but the thing is focus and concentration. When the bell rings it's like when the little red light goes on over the camera. And I can usually nail my lines on the fi...”

“I always knew I'd accomplish something very special - like robbing a bank perhaps.”

“I still work out most days. When I do it, I go full blast five or six days a week, two to three hours a day. I enjoy it. It's therapeutic for me.”

“It's the formulaic studio movies the make money, and when they do, the actors in them are automatically movie stars.”

“People need medicine and they need therapists.”

“As time goes by and you're getting older and stuff like that - getting older sucks. You know, I hear all this crap about, 'Oh, you can age with dignity.' Really?”