By the end of the shoot [of Wrestler], my trainer was pushing me up three flights of stairs to my house and holding my arm like I was an old cripple. I had three MRIs in the first two months of working on the film. I felt like it really was over by the time we started shooting the movie.

I grew up in a gym in Miami, the one where Muhammad Ali trained. I had 142 amateur fights and lost three.

I never look backwards. I have always been an athlete. I boxed before I acted.

Actors should shut up about politics. They tend to be ill-informed finger-pointers who just cosy up to some flavour of-the-month liberal.

Being out of work for 13 to 15 years is no walk in the park.

It was either therapy or die.

Sometimes, when a man is alone, that's all you got is your dog.