Sometimes They Come Back: Mickey Rourke

“I wasn't in the 90’s, I was sitting on the bench”

“I didn't have a childhood, really, because I worked my whole life and . . . other reasons. So when I had some success, I went ballistic. That was my childhood, and the party kept going on. I didn't get off my motorcycle for 10 years.”

“Actors should shut up about politics, because they tend to be ill-informed finger-pointers who just cozy up to some flavour-of-the-month liberal, you know?”

“You get desensitized to pain and for three and a half years I developed these symptoms of brain damage - you forget what you did the night before. You have to get out when the doctors tell you to, otherwise you're on queer street for the rest of your life. One doctor said to me before a big fight, ‘our neurological report doesn't look too good’ I was like four fights away from a big, big fight and he said, ‘Mickey, how much are they paying you? Look at your tests - you won't be able to count the money’.”

“You know the song, ‘I Fought the Law and the Law Won’? Well, I fought the system and it kicked the living shit out of me!”

“I always thought I'd accomplish something special. Like robbing a bank.”

“Stallone, when I was flat broke and I could hardly pay for a bowl of spaghetti in a restaurant, gave me a couple of weeks on ‘Get Carter’, and that paid my fuckin' rent for eight months.”

“I called up a guy who used to hang with me and asked where I might get me some construction work. He brushed me off and said he didn't have time for my shit.”

“I was bouncing at a transvestite nightclub... and back then all the transvestites were on this shit called Angel Dust, so you'd hit them over the head with a baseball bat but they'd keep on coming.”

“I lost the house, the wife, the credibility, the entourage. I lost my soul. I was alone ... I'm sort of OK with it now, but the first time I'm in there, pushing a fucking cart, getting my supper. I used to go to the 24-hour place in gay town, so no one would recognize me. The only thing I could afford was a shrink, so that's where my money went. Three times a week for the first two years. The year after that, twice a week and now I'm down to once a week. I've only missed two appointments in six years.”

“The old me wasn't accountable or responsible for anything. There were no rules, and I didn't fear any consequences or repercussions of any kind. I don't want to go back to that dark place because this is my last chance, and I'm not going to get another.”

“Who do I share the good things happening to me with? My dogs, I guess.”

“It's like when I buy a horse. I don't want a thick neck and short legs.”

“I'll never be mellow, OK? I'd rather be dead than mellow. You might as well take me out the back and shoot me in the back of the head before I'm going to be mellow.”

“The first act of my life was crazy, but I've learned from it. If you've got the guts and the desire and the talent, the first time around is easy. The second time around, it's murder. How many guys make it round the second bend?”