Mike Tyson

“Things can change. Life is all a learning process.”

“Whatever you want, especially when you’re striving to be the best in the world at something, there’ll always be disappointments, and you can’t be emotionally tied to them, cos’ they’ll break your spirit.”

“As human beings, nobody gets out of this world free. We all have to do some suffering before we leave.”

“My power is discombobulatingly devastating.”

“Me? I see an old, broke-ass black guy taking care of a bunch of kids, living life, taking them to school, and all that stuff, who's asking himself: What the hell is this? But I wouldn't give it up for the world because I love my wife. I never expected to have a life like this. No chaos... no confusion... no lawsuits... no violence... no going to jail.”

“I just look around and say, I'm a mess. I don't know why I do things.”

“I'm just trying to change my life because I'm not above killing any drug dealer for money.”

“The one thing I know, everyone respects the true person and everyone's not true with themselves. All of these people who are heroes, these guys who have been lily white and clean all their lives, if they went through what I went through, they would commit suicide. They don't have the heart that I have. I've lived places they can't defecate in.”

“We all have struggles in life but we have to continue to fight”

“Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth.”

“I don't want to be grotesque, but when you're 330 pounds, it's hard to wipe your a-. You know?”

“Nietzsche's my favorite. He's just insane.”

“Hannibal rode elephants into cartilage”

“Box gap is not a thing. If you need to back up to a mirror and bend over to find out how you look, you are playing to the wrong audience.”

“I ain't the same person I was when I bit that guy's ear off.”

“I think the reality of prison is you don't get anything unless you want it in there. Whatever happens to you in prison, this is what you asked for. Nothing happens to you if you don't give that vibe.”

“I know why they don't like me because they want the money I have.”

“I'm not a good-looking guy. I don't care if my nose gets mashed.”

“If I was fighting myself, I always say that I would kill Mike Tyson but then again I don't know how hard a punch Mike Tyson can take and I don't know how hard Mike Tyson's punch is. I don't know. For me looking at me, I think I can beat me.”

“I'm many things: I'm a convicted rapist, I'm a hell-raiser, I'm a father, a loving father. I'm a semi-good husband...I'm pretty much a tyrant-titan.”

“There are not many regrets that I have. There are a few things that I wish I'd changed in my life, but they are not so dramatic that I'd go out of my way to change them. But I go back and think about my life so far periodically in my head.”

“I hope I can improve. I'm far from perfect. Sometimes, I wonder what would happen if I fought myself. I think it would be a one-round KO. But if I was fighting myself, I know I could take my best punch. No, make that two rounds. I would knock myself out in two rounds.”

“I want your heart, I want to eat your children.”

“Five heads are definitely better than one when they're thinking in the same perspective. I think that you really need to have people that you trust. And for me, trust comes from that synchronizing, that same-mindedness.”

“It's the emotional punches that you can't see that are just overwhelmingly devastating to your heart - your moral fiber.”

“That's all they said was wrong with me?”

“King has big offices, houses, and he pays his fighters a lot of money. An, because he's black, the FBI figures he must be doing something crooked.”

“I'm in trouble because I'm normal and slightly arrogant. A lot of people don't like themselves and I happen to be totally in love with myself.”

“I ain't never loan friends money; I give it to 'em and I don't expect to get it back. Even when he says, "I'll pay you back," I never expect it. If he gives it back, then hey, that's a feather in his cap, but I don't expect to get it back.”

“It doesn’t faze me what anyone says about me. It doesn’t matter what anyone says about me. I’m a totally different entity to what other people think. Michael and Tyson are two different people. I’m Tyson here.”

“I don't know that person anymore, that guy in '86, '87. I don't know that guy no more. I don't have no affinity for that guy no more. I have no affinity for the guy who said, 'I am the greatest fighter God produced.' I have no affinity for the guy who said he would try to push his [opponent's] nose bone up into his brain. I just don't know that guy. I don't know who he is. I don't know where he came from. I don't have no kind of connection with him no more.”

“My objective was to hurt the other fighters. I wanted to hurt them. I wanted to be merciless. Man, I was a wild thing. It's kind of a drug, a rush.”

“Mr. Arthur Ashe, he was good. I read some of his books. He knew about everything, but he was real quiet and didn't talk much. I never met him.”

“Boxing brought me money and fame, but it never brought me no happiness.”

“If you can't remember the small things, how are you going to remember the big things? The mind is a real dangerous neighborhood to travel by ourselves.”

“I was hittin' him with body punches and I hurt him. Actually he was cryin' in there, makin' woman gestures like”

“I can inspire people on how to use money, how to get economically powerful.”

“I live for the moment to hit people.”

“I never look at a high point in my career. Everyone thinks about the Spinks fight, but that fight only lasted 91 seconds, so it's hard to say it defined my career.”

“I just don't have the desire no more, I don't have the stomach to do it no more. I don't even kill insects in my house. I just don't kill anything no more. I used to kill pigeons, rip their heads off, 'You dirty rat pigeon!' I don't even have the heart to kill an animal no more. I just changed my whole life in general. That probably could have changed the way I fight.”

“I don't want my kids to be like me, I don't want my daughter to date a guy like me. You know, for a guy like me success is to take care of my children to take care of their life and make 'em cushioned. I don't want them to be around people like me. You know, success for me would be that they never have the opportunity of being in the presence of someone like me.”

“I just did what I did in my era, basically because of my admiration for the guys who came before me. That's how I've always looked at it. I never thought of boxing like, I'm going to be the greatest fighter ever and make a lot of money. Instead, I thought I was going to win because I learned from the best. I carefully studied the videotapes of all the fighters from the past, dissected their styles, and entered the ring with their spirit.”

“In order to be a friend to anybody, you have to be a friend to yourself. If you're not a friend to yourself, there's no way you're gonna have any friends.”

“I'm just a sucker even talking to you guys. I should be ready to rip your heads off your necks. But it's just not the right thing to do”

“I refuse to let adversity allow me to be average.”

“My career has been over since 1990.”

“[Sometimes I] put on a ski mask and dress in old clothes, go out on the streets and beg for quarters.”

“Every punch was thrown with bad intentions.”

“Sometimes, the people we invest the most time in disappoint us the most.”

“To be successful in sports or business, you really have to live the lifestyle. Success is about lifestyle. Just because I was training and working hard, that didn't make me champion or a good fighter. My lifestyle made me a good fighter. In my mind and my daily life, I was the heavy weight champ when I was 15 or 14. I lived the life of the heavyweight champion, and that's who I became. And that is so much more than just training. So, when the time presented itself, that's who I already was. I was ready. I was already there.”