Mickey Rourke

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

To me, everything's competition.

A lot of those who let you down are those who seemed the closest to you.

All that prosthetic makeup drains you. By the time it's lunch, you're done.

I had some things I had to fix. It took me 14 years to do it. But it was never really fun back in the day to work with directors who were a lot older and were like authoritarian and talking to you like that.

I started to shortcircuit because I had high aspirations for the film. I never told anybody that.

It was the most fun I've ever had on a movie. It was one of the happiest times in my life. I was living in New York, and I really enjoyed acting at the time. Also, it's funny because that was also the time when I went downhill.

I had a bonding problem when I went off and boxed for five years. I was over in Europe and Asia fighting because I wanted to do something different; I was tired of acting. But the thing is, when I was done doing that, I couldn't get a job.

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

I did think for many, many years that because of my ability I could beat the system. And I was wrong.

It was either therapy or die.

Years ago I realized that maybe I made mistake, politically, when I turned a lot of that stuff down. I would go off to obscure places and make movies that six people went to see.

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

A lot of the stuff I am now seeing is edgy, raw kinda material.

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

The acclaim I'm getting for 'The Wrestler' means everything in the world to me. But it also means I can't take my foot off the gas pedal.

I spent so long studying really hard to become a fine actor, but threw it all away because I got the adulation and the fame so easily.

You can be mediocre, the way most actors are, and you can still be a top movie star, even if your movies are boring and predictable. All you have to do is know how to sell yourself, let yourself be manufactured.

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?

You know, back in acting school they always teach you, 'Make bold choices and look for activities that are interesting.'