Where I come from, being a hard man is being able to take a good beating and then get back up again and carry on fighting. – Mickey Rourke
When you lose everything, and I mean everything, you sit there in this empty room in the dark, and the only person who can get you out is you. – Mickey Rourke
Very few men can fall as far as I have and come back. People see me and it’s like they’ve seen a ghost, like I’m back from the dead. – Mickey Rourke
I never knew my father, and I’d hate to repeat that kind of cycle with my own children, because I’d also want to be there for them no matter what. – Mickey Rourke
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. – Mickey Rourke
Once you’ve been somebody, really, you have a career and you’re a nobody anymore, and you’re getting older, you’re living what’s called a state of shame. – Mickey Rourke
I did think for many, many years that because of my ability I could beat the system. And I was wrong. – Mickey Rourke
What I’ve got to do now is let them judge me for who I am as an actor and not for my notoriety. – Mickey Rourke
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. – Mickey Rourke
When I first met Alan Parker, who directed ‘Angel Heart,’ he’d heard so many horror stories about me that he was literally scared to death of me. Right away, he sat me down and said, ‘I’m very scared of you. I’ve heard you’re a very bad boy.’ – Mickey Rourke
I have a really good relationship with a lot of designers. I like Gaultier, Billionaire and Cavalli. – Mickey Rourke
Acting was never my first choice as a profession, but I came to terms with it when I decided I better buckle down and be the best I can be at it. – Mickey Rourke
I spent a lot of years trying to beat the system and, in the end, the system kicked my behind good. – Mickey Rourke