I Spent A Lot Of Years Trying

I Tried To Change My Name For The Fights, But The Only Way They Could Pay Me Money Was If I Used My Own Name. I Wanted To Change My Name To, Like, Romeo Something-or-other, And They Said, "no, We Can't Do That. We've Got To Use Mickey Rourke." Because They Paid Me A Lot Of Money To Go Over To Europe And Asia To Fight.

I Think The First Year And A Half That I Was In New York I Was Having Trouble Just Living Somewhere. Back In Them Days The City Was A Lot Different Than It Is Now.

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.

Boxers Are Very Isolated - Or Isolated Within Their Own Camps.

Julian Schnabel Painted A Picture That He Dedicated To My Character In Rumble Fish. It Was Called The Motorcycle Boy. I Remember When He Brought It Over To Me At The Mayflower Hotel [in New York] Years Ago. This Is When You And I Knew Each Other.