"Fighting is a sport; if you're not humble it's going to bring humbleness to you." ~ Mike Tyson
"Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth." ~ Mike Tyson
"Discipline is doing what you hate to do, but nonetheless doing it like you love it." ~ Mike Tyson
"In order to succeed greatly, you have to be prepared to fail greatly. If you can't do both of them, you've got a problem." ~ Mike Tyson
"Everybody you fight is not your enemy and everybody who helps you is not your friend." ~ Mike Tyson
"As long as we persevere and endure, we can get anything we want." ~ Mike Tyson
"You never lose until you actually give up." ~ Mike Tyson
"Fear is the greatest obstacle to learning. But fear is your best friend. Fear is like fire. If you learn to control it, you let it work for you. If you don’t learn to control it, it’ll destroy you and everything around you. Like a snowball on a hill, you can pick it up and throw it or do anything you want with it before it starts rolling down, but once it rolls down and gets so big, it’ll crush you to death. So one must never allow fear to develop and build up without having control over it, because if you don’t you won’t be able to achieve your objective or save your life." ~ Mike Tyson
"At one point, I thought life was about acquiring things. But as a I get older, life is totally about losing everything." ~ Mike Tyson
"A man that is a friend to everyone is an enemy to himself." ~ Mike Tyson
"God lets everything happen for a reason. It's all a learning process, and you have to go from one level to another." ~ Mike Tyson
"You can’t be disturbed by anything. There’s no emotion involved. You can’t feel sorrow, you can’t feel pity, there’s nothing you feel. The job has to be done." ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm addicted to perfection. Problem with my life is I was always also addicted to chaos. Perfect chaos." ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm a dreamer. I have to dream and reach for the stars, and if I miss a star then I grab a handful of clouds." ~ Mike Tyson
"Every great general and warrior from the beginning of time was high." ~ Mike Tyson
"Without struggle, there is no progress. There has to be struggle in your life. You have to grow in experience to control your ego. Cause, you know, an ego can be crushed, it can be killed, it can be smashed, but it comes back. It never dies. That's the thing about the ego: it never dies." ~ Mike Tyson
"Confidence breeds success & success breeds confidence... Confidence applied properly surpasses genius." ~ Mike Tyson
"Fighting is not physical, fighting is spiritual. It's the determination and the will in the guy." ~ Mike Tyson
"Any man can do what he has to do. But doing it like you love it? That is what takes it to a whole different level. A champion does it like he loves it, even when he doesn't." ~ Mike Tyson
"In order for me to achieve... I had to regard myself greater than what I was. In other words I had to fake it until I make it." ~ Mike Tyson
"Confidence applied properly is the path of genius. You must always be in a state of confidence. And the way you sustain a state of confidence is by testing yourself. Difficult quagmires that may occur; there's always a test. You have to seek them out. You constantly have to test yourself to prepare for these quagmires. That's why I always put myself to the test." ~ Mike Tyson
"There's nothing like confidence." ~ Mike Tyson
"Tupac Shakur always wanted me to smoke weed with him, and I never did it, and I wish I did...That's my biggest regret." ~ Mike Tyson
"Discipline makes hard men. Every hard man is capable of being a killer. But every killer is not capable of being a hard man. They can't endure that much. It's all about the endurance. That's why they become killers. Because they can't endure the pain. They need to kill the pain to stop it." ~ Mike Tyson
"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." ~ Mike Tyson
"It's good to know how to read, but it's dangerous to know how to read and not how to interpret what you're reading." ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm the most brutal and ruthless conquerer there has ever been." ~ Mike Tyson
"Sometimes, the people we invest the most time in disappoint us the most." ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm a bad guy. But if I was a good guy, nobody would want to pay to see me fight." ~ Mike Tyson
"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." ~ Mike Tyson
"I normally don't do interviews with women unless I fornicate with them." ~ Mike Tyson
"There's nothing to fear but fear itself. It's an illusion of fear. Fear is an illusion. If you gonna die, you gonna die anyway; it's not something to fear, fear is not gonna help." ~ Mike Tyson
"Treat the world the way you want to be treated." ~ Mike Tyson
"When you have something in life that you want to accomplish greatly, you have to be willing to give up your happiness…I’ve lost all my sensitivity as far as being embarrassed, being shy, you just have to lose that." ~ Mike Tyson
"The tempt for greatness is the biggest drug in the world." ~ Mike Tyson
"You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes a day, unless you're too busy, then you should sit for an hour. If Tetris has taught me anything, it's that errors pile up & accomplishments disappear. Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." ~ Mike Tyson
"You have to feel comfortable being uncomfortable. I'm always comfortable being uncomfortable. And to be comfortable being uncomfortable, I have to hone my discipline, which to me is doing what I have to do, but also doing it like I love it." ~ Mike Tyson
"There's nothing like being young, and happy, and fighting." ~ Mike Tyson
"There's nothing like being young, and happy, and fighting." ~ Mike Tyson
"I don't try to intimidate anybody before a fight. That's nonsense. I intimidate people by hitting them." ~ Mike Tyson
"Money is my God. If you think God will help you then quit your job and see how much he cares." ~ Mike Tyson
"I try my best to learn from other people's mistakes. I have a lot of respect for people who can change." ~ Mike Tyson
"Yes, time flies. And where did it leave you? Old too soon...smart too late." ~ Mike Tyson
"If you're not humble, life will visit humbleness upon you." ~ Mike Tyson
"No one wants to get up at 4 and run when it's pitch-dark, but it has to be done. The only reason i do it so early is because i believe the other guy isn't doing it and that gives me a little edge" ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm on the Zoloft to keep from killing y'all." ~ Mike Tyson
"There's nothing wrong with making mistakes, just don't make the same ones. We don't want to duplicate them." ~ Mike Tyson
"Guess I'm going to fade into Bolivian." ~ Mike Tyson
"What I've done in the past is history and what I'm gonna do in the future is a mystery" ~ Mike Tyson
"Every win, regardless a good or bad one, gives you more confidence." ~ Mike Tyson
"You need to learn independence. You have to be independent - it builds character." ~ Mike Tyson
"Fear is your best friend or your worst enemy. It's like fire. If you can control it, it can cook for you; it can heat your house. If you can't control it, it will burn everything around you and destroy you. If you can control your fear, it makes you more alert, like a deer coming across the lawn." ~ Mike Tyson
"The mind is a real dangerous neighborhood to travel by ourselves." ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm the best ever. I'm the most brutal and vicious, and most ruthless champion there's ever been. There's no one can stop me. Lennox is a conqueror? No, I'm Alexander, he's no Alexander. I'm the best ever! There's never been anybody as ruthless! I'm Sonny Liston, I'm Jack Dempsey. There's no one like me. I'm from their cloth. There's no one that can match me. My style is impetuous, my defense is impregnable, and I'm just ferocious. I want your heart! I want to eat his children! Praise be to Allah!" ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm scared every time I go into the ring, but it's how you handle it. What you have to do is plant your feet, bite down on your mouthpiece and say, 'Let's go.'" ~ Mike Tyson
"I'll never be happy. I believe I'll die alone. I would want it that way. I've been a loner all my life with my secrets and my pain. I'm really lost, but I'm trying to find myself. I'm really a sad, pathetic case. My whole life has been a waste. I've been a failure. I just want to escape." ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm just like you. I enjoy the forbidden fruits in life, too." ~ Mike Tyson
"You have to compete in life because if you don't have no competition - no competition, no spirit, you know, you'll fall under the slightest struggle." ~ Mike Tyson
"People say 'Poor guy.' That insults me. I despise sympathy. So I screwed up. I made some mistakes. 'Poor guy,' like I'm some victim. There's nothing poor about me." ~ Mike Tyson
"One morning I woke up and found my favorite pigeon, Julius, had died I was devastated and was gonna use his crate as my stickball bat to honor him. I left the crate on my stoop and went in to get something and I returned to see the sanitation man put the crate into the crusher. I rushed him and caught him flush on the temple with a titanic right hand he was out cold, convulsing on the floor like an infantile retard." ~ Mike Tyson
"My biggest weakness is my sensitivity. I am too sensitive a person." ~ Mike Tyson
"We all have to control our feelings. That's the thing that separates us from animals." ~ Mike Tyson
"Hard times fall upon everybody. Whatever it is, we're going to get out of it." ~ Mike Tyson
"Without discipline, no matter how good you are, you are nothing! One day, and I might not be around; you're going to meet a tough guy who takes your best shot. He'll keep coming because he's tough. Don't get discouraged. That's when the discipline comes in." ~ Mike Tyson
"You stand your ground and you perform your art. That's what the artist does. The artist is about perfection." ~ Mike Tyson
"When Jesus comes back, these crazy, greedy, capitalistic men are gonna kill him again." ~ Mike Tyson
"To some people the ego is evil. It gives you so much. It gives you everything you want. But it takes back too much in return. It gives you everything: money, riches, women, glamour, everything you want. But in return it takes back so much, and you're soulless. That's its goal. The ego's goal is to leave you soulless." ~ Mike Tyson
"I was an emotional manipulator of fighters . . . You have to know how to be cold, you know? Just have no -emotions, no feelings. It takes time, though, to develop that. I'd been working on that since I was 12 years old. It doesn't happen overnight." ~ Mike Tyson
"The most important thing in the world for show business, really, you know everything's a high-tech business, but what people want now is what they can't get - exclusivity." ~ Mike Tyson
"People love you when you're successful, but if you're not, who really cares about you?" ~ Mike Tyson
"Anger is my biggest enemy in life." ~ Mike Tyson
"The one thing I know, everyone respects the true person and everyone's not true with themselves." ~ Mike Tyson
"Everybody thinks this is a tough man's sport. This is not a tough man's sport. This is a thinking man's sport. A tough man is gonna get hurt real bad in this sport." ~ Mike Tyson
"We're all going to have tests in our life... We never know when that test comes, but we know we have to be prepared for it. We're all going to be tested. The dark energy is going to knock on all of our doors." ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm the best fighter in the world. No one can beat me....My objective is to inflict as much pain as possible, to win and win spectacularly...Ever since I was 12 years old, I was groomed to be the heavyweight champion of the world. I've been prepared to handle the pressure, the dealing with the press, everything." ~ Mike Tyson
"Boxing brought me money and fame, but it never brought me no happiness." ~ Mike Tyson
"Destroy or be destroyed! I just love that way of life!" ~ Mike Tyson
"Fighting is all about calmness and relaxation. My appearance was all an illusion. My appearance is of a mad man, but I'm really calm and collected. Even though I'm fighting, I'm calm and relaxed as possible, despite my displays, because once you get excited, you can't fight at the highest level of your ability." ~ Mike Tyson
"Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. Then, like a rat, they stop in fear and freeze." ~ Mike Tyson
"This white woman came up to me, and I'm thinking, WOW. When I was a kid, she would have been robbed and raped and left for dead. This is a real strange scenario, and I just wanted to cry. I'm like, "Who am I? Where's my heritage?" ~ Mike Tyson
"I don't care how much you love each other, if you have secrets, it'll never work. That's why she's your loved one, because it's the love of one. Togetherness, you are one." ~ Mike Tyson
"People relate to fighters so much because fighting reflects life." ~ Mike Tyson
"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." ~ Mike Tyson
"I fight for perfection" ~ Mike Tyson
"I feel like sometimes that I was not meant for this society." ~ Mike Tyson
"I had it in my mind: to be confident, and to keep saying that until the confidence appeared. But I took it too far. Confidence did help make me champion, but, man, I took it to a whole different level. I was a megalomaniac. I was not humble and it eventually came back on me. So I want my kids to know, keep humbleness and kindness in their hearts. It will prevail." ~ Mike Tyson
"When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff." ~ Mike Tyson
"Everybody wants to be somebody. Everybody wants to be noticed. Everybody wants to be somebody important. Importance is just treating people good. That's important." ~ Mike Tyson
"I was in handcuffs. I was under arrest. I remember there was this old lady looking at me, and I could tell she felt real sorry for me, and she did'nt know but all I wanted to do was take her purse." ~ Mike Tyson
"We all have struggles in life but we have to continue to fight" ~ Mike Tyson
"I earned that the strong will always beat the weak, but the smart will beat the strong. Boxing is a tough guy sport. But in the end, the tough guy gets to clean the streets and be a bodyguard. In the ring, the tough guy is going to get hurt; at the end of the day, he's going to talk funny. Only the smartest win. So, I know it's cliché, but power - real power - comes from knowledge, comes from smarts." ~ Mike Tyson
"Most fighters are the most humble people in the world because they've gotten their ass kicked before." ~ Mike Tyson
"People see it [boxing] as a physical contact sport, but it's not. It's really a spiritual one of will against will. Who wants it the most? How much is he willing to take - and dish out - to get it? It's like fighting is 10 percent physical and 90 percent emotional." ~ Mike Tyson
"My power is discombobulatingly devastating. It's ludricrous these mortals even attempt to enter my realm." ~ Mike Tyson
"Nietzsche's my favorite. He's just insane." ~ Mike Tyson
"I got a imam, I got a rabbi, I got a priest, I got a reverend - I got 'em all. But I don't want to be holier-than-thou. I want to help everybody and still get some (sex)." ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm not much for talking. You know what I do. I put guys in body bags when I'm right." ~ Mike Tyson
"We're all going to be tested. The dark energy is going to knock on all of our doors." ~ Mike Tyson
"I've been a prima-dona. I was taken care of since I was 13. That's why I am the way I am today. I was spoiled, like a brat. I had anything I wanted. That's crazy to be that way all your life. Everybody's taking care of you, but manipulating you at the same time. Very few people have a life like that. Most people have to work like slaves their whole lives. I've never had a job in my life. What I know how to do is hurt big, tough men - in the street and off." ~ Mike Tyson
"Unfortunately, sometimes you can't have fun accomplishing your goals. Sometimes people don't have the determination, the will, the steadfastness, the tenacity, they give in under the slightest struggle." ~ Mike Tyson
"I always had a lot of responsibilities. I just didn't take them. I just decided to take care of my responsibilities, live up to them. That's a pretty interesting job. It's harder than being heavyweight champion of the world." ~ Mike Tyson
"When I fight someone, I want to break his will. I want to take his manhood. I want to rip out his heart and show it to him." ~ Mike Tyson
"You can't be everybody's friend, you can't save the world, I learned this word: self-preservation. Once you do that, you can be friends with people, but how would you be a friend to anybody if you're not a friend to yourself." ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm gonna make sure you talk about me, and your grandkids and kids after that gonna know about me...your great grandkids will say "wow, wasn't that a bizarre individual?"" ~ Mike Tyson
"Sometimes during a relationship, a friendship, a friend's gonna have to prove they're your friend, and you're gonna have to prove you're their friend." ~ Mike Tyson
"What was most important was the knowledge [aspect] of the fight. I learned this early on and just told myself to "upgrade my mind." That's just what I wanted to do my whole life." ~ Mike Tyson
"I can sell out Madison Square Garden masturbating" ~ Mike Tyson
"I like strong women - not necessarily a masculine woman - but I like strong women...say a woman who runs a C.E.O. corporation. I like a strong woman with confidence - massive confidence - and then I want to dominate her sexually." ~ Mike Tyson
"I was hittin' him with body punches and I hurt him. Actually he was cryin' in there, makin' woman gestures like" ~ Mike Tyson
"The drug dealers, they sympathize with me. They see me as some sort of pathetic character." ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm a historian, and that freaks me out." ~ Mike Tyson
"Fighters are never who they appear to be" ~ Mike Tyson
"These books ain't window dressing. I think Machiavelli's the most sophisticated writer outside of Shakespeare. Way ahead of his time. Such a manipulative person. Everything he accomplished he did by kissin' ass." ~ Mike Tyson
"I could feel his muscle tissues collapse under my force. It's ludicrous these mortals even attempt to enter my realm." ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm trying to figure things out in the world. No one knows what this life thing is all about - there's no manual. Just trying to figure it out." ~ Mike Tyson
"Everybody in boxing probably makes out well except for the fighter." ~ Mike Tyson
"As human beings, nobody gets out of this world free. We all have to do some suffering before we leave." ~ Mike Tyson
"I can't change myself. I'm Mike Tyson. I'm a regular kid from the getto striving to do something positive with myself. I happen to fight well." ~ Mike Tyson
"I don't react to a tragic happening any more. I took so many bad things as a kid and some people think I don't care about anything. It's just too hard for me to get emotional. I can't cry no more." ~ Mike Tyson
"I could have knocked him out in the 3rd round but I wanted to do it slowly, So he would remember this night for a long time." ~ Mike Tyson
"He didn't have no respect as a professional fighter should, no class. I was going to make him pay with his health for everything he said... I wanted to do it very slowly. I wanted him to remember this for a long time." ~ Mike Tyson
"You have to be a friend to yourself. You know, 'cause if you're not a friend to yourself, you're an enemy to yourself and if someone's a friend of everybody they are an enemy to themselves." ~ Mike Tyson
"Not to be egotistical, but I don't think there is a man on this planet who can beat me" ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm going to gut you like a fish." ~ Mike Tyson
"Fighting is endurance, knocking a guy out in 10 seconds is not fighting, its beating him to the punch. But when you put in that time, that is fighting because you are thinking" ~ Mike Tyson
"When you're a great finisher, you'll become popular. Joe Louis was a great finisher." ~ Mike Tyson
"My nature is to get instant gratification. On stage, I can feel everybody's anticipation. I know what they want, I know what I'm going to give them, I know when I'm going to give it to them, I know when they want it." ~ Mike Tyson
"If you're a professional, you'll make it work. You can be like, 'I'm not going to do that, I'm going to do it where I'm satisfied.' But I'm very comfortable being uncomfortable so I just go for it." ~ Mike Tyson
"It's unnatural to fight somebody who has nothing against you and never did anything to you or to your family, who never stole anything from you. And now you've got to go and try to dismantle this guy." ~ Mike Tyson
"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." ~ Mike Tyson
"Anyone with a grain of sense would know that if I punched my wife I would rip her head off. It's all lies. I have never laid a finger on her." ~ Mike Tyson
"I refuse to let adversity allow me to be average." ~ Mike Tyson
"I felt the same fear in my first fight as I did in my last fight. It never goes away." ~ Mike Tyson
"They called me a 'rapist' and a 'recluse.' I'm not a recluse." ~ Mike Tyson
"How dare these boxers challenge me with their primitive skills? It makes me angry." ~ Mike Tyson
"There's no future in our past. Just experience. We want to return to it, but we don't want to close the door on it either." ~ Mike Tyson
"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." ~ Mike Tyson
"Some people are faster than others; I'm just figuring it out later, that's all. I'm getting smart too late and old too soon." ~ Mike Tyson
"I don't know, man, I guess I'm gonna fade into Bolivian." ~ Mike Tyson
"It's the emotional punches that you can't see that are just overwhelmingly devastating to your heart - your moral fiber." ~ Mike Tyson
"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." ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm doing what great artists before me did, like Judy Garland, Sammy Davis, Eddie Cantor. I'm doing what they were doing, not at their level yet, but one day I will be. I'm just happy to be in their company." ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm not a good-looking guy. I don't care if my nose gets mashed." ~ Mike Tyson
"I don't understand why people would want to get rid of pigeons. They don't bother no one." ~ Mike Tyson
"I like horror movies. Nightmare on Elm Street is my favourite. I even get scared a little bit watching horror." ~ Mike Tyson
"If you did everything your mind told you to do, you do some really strange stuff. You'll probably be in jail, you'll be in trouble. But, it's all about control. We all have to control our feelings. That's the thing that separates us from animals." ~ Mike Tyson
"Everyone in boxing probably makes out well except for the fighter. He's the only one that's on Skid Row most of the time; he's the only one that everybody just leaves when he loses his mind. He sometimes goes insane, he sometimes goes on the bottle, because it's an intensive pressure sport that allows people to just lose it." ~ Mike Tyson
"Cus was my father but he was more than a father. You can have a father and what does it mean?—it doesn't really mean anything. Cus was my backbone . . . . He did everything for my best interest . . . . We'd spend all our time together, talk about things that, later on, would come back to me. Like about character, and courage. Like the hero and the coward: that the hero and the coward both feel the same thing, but the hero uses his fear, projects it onto his opponent, while the coward runs. It's the same thing, fear, but it's what you do with it that matters." ~ Mike Tyson
"I never saw my mother happy with me and proud of me for doing something: She only knew me as being a wild kid running the streets, coming home with new clothes that she knew I didn't pay for. I never got a chance to talk to her or know about her. Professionally, it has no effect, but it's crushing emotionally and personally." ~ Mike Tyson
"I had to persevere because this was my life. This championship, this was the stuff I dreamt of all my life, and I wasn't gonna be denied." ~ Mike Tyson
"I was blessed with speed and a good punch. Everybody thinks I'm the hardest puncher ever. But I just think I was really fast, and my punches got to the target faster. That's what made my knockouts always seem spectacular." ~ Mike Tyson
"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." ~ Mike Tyson
"Greatness is not guarding yourself from the people, Greatness is being accepted by the people." ~ Mike Tyson
"Sometimes they laugh at things I don't think are funny, but I believe if they're laughing at me, it's a good show." ~ Mike Tyson
"Emotion is more than just anger. When I am performing, I need emotion, but I need control, too. Emotion drives the best performance and is necessary, but it must be controlled. I believe Fedor [Emelianenko] does that. I do too. We may look different in how we do it, but we both do it." ~ Mike Tyson
"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." ~ Mike Tyson
"Fear and the thought of failure . . . But we don't really know what fear is. Fear is something that we create in our own minds. Fear could be like fire. You can use it to heat you up, keep you warm, cook your food. There are so many things you can use it for. But if you allow it to go out of control, it will destroy you and everything around you." ~ Mike Tyson
"People tell me I'm a comedian, but I don't approach acting from that perspective. I do know that everything in life has to do with your timing and perception. You have to be comfortable with the rhythm that you're in. You can't just jump into a fast rhythm if yours is slow. You might have to pick up the pace but in your own particular way. It has to do with personality, too." ~ Mike Tyson
"If he's not dead, it doesn't count." ~ Mike Tyson
"I guess I'm gonna fade into Bolivian." ~ Mike Tyson
"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." ~ Mike Tyson
"Boxing is an ego-driven sport. The idea is to not get too personal or emotional with it. You just know when it's over, it's over, and that's it." ~ Mike Tyson
"For what I get paid to get into the ring, I owe it to my fans to uphold the institution of sportsmanship." ~ Mike Tyson
"[Cus D'Amato] told me, 'You're the type of guy who has to be hurt to learn.' I'm pissed off today because he was right about everything." ~ Mike Tyson
"I want someone to attack me. No weapons. Just me and him. I like to beat men and beat them bad" ~ Mike Tyson
"I know at times I come across like a Neanderthal or a babbling idiot, but I like that person." ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm a vegan. I lost 150 pounds because of being a vegan." ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm just a guy that is basically depending on my responsibility skills. I'm really responsible with my children and my wife and my family life. Things have changed with me. I'm not a night person anymore. I've got too many responsibilities to play." ~ Mike Tyson
"I live for the moment to hit people." ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm not a Republican, but I have some conservative views on certain things. I'm not a Democrat, either. It's just very difficult that these people hate each other over a belief. I think it all comes down to ego and competitiveness." ~ Mike Tyson
"We live in a society where we basically live and strive on what people think about us. We’re more visual people so what we see is basically what we believe which is not necessarily true." ~ Mike Tyson
"Anything that helps pay the bills, I love it. Anything that makes people happy, I'm happy with that." ~ Mike Tyson
"I didn't know how to be any other way. I felt like one of those barbarian kings just coming to conquer the Roman Empire." ~ Mike Tyson
"You have to have a bunch of dimensions [of yourself]. You have to be able to adapt in this world. You can't be a nice guy living in a world of savages." ~ Mike Tyson
"I don't want to be remembered. As long as my kids remember me, I'd rather be forgotten by everybody else." ~ Mike Tyson
"I tried to stay away from King. You can't do it. It's like staying away from taxes. Sooner or later, he'll get you." ~ Mike Tyson
"That equals to being a fool, having fame and no fortune. A lot of guys out there have fame doing this and doing that, but they are broke." ~ Mike Tyson
"Most writers, in my opinion, are dysfunctional derelicts." ~ Mike Tyson
"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." ~ Mike Tyson
"At times, I come across as crude or crass, that irritates you when I come across like a Neanderthal or a babbling idiot at times. But I like to be that person. I like to show you all that person because that's who you come to see." ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm a good friend, but I'm a hell of an enemy. As your enemy, I want your demise. When I feel that in my heart it burns till I die." ~ Mike Tyson
"I probably have a 20,000-word vocabulary. I'll match my wits with anyone on literature, science and the arts." ~ Mike Tyson
"I like entertaining people. I like being on stage. I like being in the life. This is what I do. This is the only thing I know how to do besides rob people and fight. Even when I was robbing people, I was entertaining them. But that's just what I love doing." ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm a Muslim, but I think Jesus would have a drink with me. He would be cool. He would talk to me." ~ Mike Tyson
"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." ~ Mike Tyson
"Whatever my situation, I'm a strong disciplinarian; I can do what I hate to do but do it like I love it." ~ Mike Tyson
"I felt Holyfield was using his head illegally. I told the referee I wasn't getting any help, so I went back to the streets. I cannot defend it, but it happened." ~ Mike Tyson
"We wanna believe that we're different than the average guy that's working 9-to-5, that our thoughts are different than his. Our inspirations and desires are different than his, that's why we succeed and he didn't cos we wanna believe we're different, but he just didn't get the break that we had...or he wasted it on something else." ~ Mike Tyson
"People look at me as some bruiser, but I want to entertain people. I want people to applaud. I want to be the cause of people being happy, their emotions changing, to tell me I did a good performance." ~ Mike Tyson
"My intentions were not to fascinate the world with my personality." ~ Mike Tyson
"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." ~ Mike Tyson
"Everybody in America is so money-hungry. It's like a rat race and even when you win you're still a freaking rat." ~ Mike Tyson
"I'll fight anybody my trainer puts me in with because I'm confident I can beat any fighter in the world. If anybody can see I'm almost a master at evading punches coming at me." ~ Mike Tyson
"God, it would be good to be a fake somebody rather than a real nobody." ~ Mike Tyson
"If Mike Tyson is in your courtroom and you don't send him to jail, it's an injustice. Everyone knows he's a bad guy. So if he is in your courtroom, he should go to jail." ~ Mike Tyson
"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." ~ Mike Tyson
"You can't stay married in a situation where you are afraid to go to sleep in case your wife might cut your throat." ~ Mike Tyson
"I love to hit people. I love to." ~ Mike Tyson
"I don't have to be that gentleman ["baddest man on the planet"] anymore. Now I have to be "this" guy. And in order to be "this" guy, I have to be smiling, I have to be gregarious, I have to be entertaining, and I have to be friendly. This is what my career needs now. I've adapted. But 20 years from now, I may need a different persona." ~ Mike Tyson
"I don't want anyone to have to interview me. I wish I didn't have to talk too much about myself." ~ Mike Tyson
"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." ~ Mike Tyson
"If my children will live a better life than I did by my getting brain damage, by my being brain dead, then let it be." ~ Mike Tyson
"On stage it's just a wild setting - we have a big screen - hecklers, I'm fighting. It's entertainment, but I want to pierce [the audience's] souls and have them think about what I have to say." ~ Mike Tyson
"Fighting is spiritual. It appears to be physical from the layman's eyes. In my fights, I seemed to be angry and mad - all that stuff you saw me doing, the yelling and screaming and being mean in the ring - but I'm cool as a cucumber. I can hear everybody talking around me outside of the ring. I can see everybody. I know what is going on." ~ Mike Tyson
"I just want to be humble at all times." ~ Mike Tyson
"When I'm on stage, I'm not me playing me. I'm somebody else doing me. I could never go on stage and be like, "Hey, I'm Mike Tyson. My mother and father was in the sex industry." That's the politically correct way to say it, but I would really say, "My mother and father were pimps and whores. This is my life." I could never do that as Mike Tyson. Because I'd feel sorry for myself. But if I could be objective about it and be somebody else, portraying Mike Tyson, saying this story, then it's easy sailing." ~ Mike Tyson
"My father was a pimp before he became a deacon or something. These people know how to handle women. I'm the worst guy in the world with women. They run circles around me." ~ Mike Tyson
"I didn't come from a household where my mother dragged me outside and said, "You'd better fight." My mother wouldn't let me fight. I was not an aggressive kid." ~ Mike Tyson
"I know I'm going to blow one day. My life is doomed the way it is. I have no future." ~ Mike Tyson
"It's nothing personal, but I'm going to kill this guy" ~ Mike Tyson
"I still can’t believe [ Muhammad Ali ] knows my name. It astounds me he knows who I am. I first met Ali in 1976. I was locked up in a juvenile home and he came to visit. I’ve never forgotten it." ~ Mike Tyson
"This is my career. I have children to raise. I have to retaliate. Evander Holyfield butted me. Look at me. My kids will be scared of me." ~ Mike Tyson
"I guess I'll fade off into bolivian" ~ Mike Tyson
"I ain't the same person I was when I bit that guy's ear off." ~ Mike Tyson
"I just have this thing inside me that wants to eat and conquer. Maybe it's egotistical, but I have it in me. I don't want to be a tycoon. I just want to conquer people and their souls." ~ Mike Tyson
"I just want to conquer people and their souls." ~ Mike Tyson
"I want to throw down your kid and stomp on his testicles, and then you will know what it is like to experience waking up everyday as me. And only then will you feel my pain." ~ Mike Tyson
"For this fight my blood, my soul, everything was on the line." ~ Mike Tyson
"March 16th, Mike Tyson [vs.] Razor Ruddock, Razor Ruddock dies. If he doesn't die, it doesn't count. If he's not dead, it doesn't count." ~ Mike Tyson
"I may have smoked too much weed, but I wasn't taking drugs or anything." ~ Mike Tyson
"I know why they don't like me because they want the money I have." ~ Mike Tyson
"My style was impetuous, my defenses were impregnable, and I was ferocious." ~ Mike Tyson
"What I want to do in life is just be a respectful man and just take care of my children and guide my family in the right direction. I'm not looking to be a chairperson, I'm not looking to be ambassador or anything in that capacity." ~ Mike Tyson
"Don't be surprised if I behave like a savage. I am a savage" ~ Mike Tyson
"Hannibal rode elephants into cartilage" ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm not Mother Teresa, but I'm not Charles Manson, either." ~ Mike Tyson
"Basically I don't care what people think of me. I'm not in the communications business." ~ Mike Tyson
"[Sometimes I] put on a ski mask and dress in old clothes, go out on the streets and beg for quarters." ~ Mike Tyson
"I am not a role model." ~ Mike Tyson
"Things can change. Life is all a learning process." ~ Mike Tyson
"I don't think boxing took more from me then I got in return. It gave me everything that I took from it. It was all fair." ~ Mike Tyson
"What really amazed me was when I sent a suit out for cleaning, forgetting that $700 was in the pocket. They sent the suit back to me. If that happened in New York, both money and suit would be gone." ~ Mike Tyson
"I know I have only myself to blame for all the problems I've had in my life." ~ Mike Tyson
"My main objective is to be professional but to kill him." ~ Mike Tyson
"Real freedom is having nothing. I was freer when I didn't have a cent." ~ Mike Tyson
"Fear is like fire; it can be helpful if you know how to use. If not, you'll get burned." ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm the biggest fighter in the history of the sport. If you don't believe it, check the cash register." ~ Mike Tyson
"Another thing that freaks me out is time. Time is like a book. You have a beginning, a middle and an end. It's just a cycle." ~ Mike Tyson
"I intend to fight and I want to win. But my priorities are basically to be a good Brother and a strong one, and to try to be a good father one day." ~ Mike Tyson
"Everybody's got plans... until they get hit." ~ Mike Tyson
"You think the speed of your fingers can match the strength of my fists?" ~ Mike Tyson
"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." ~ Mike Tyson
"I try to catch them right on the tip of his nose, because I try to punch the bone into the brain." ~ Mike Tyson
"Being a champion opens lots of doors—I'd like to get a real estate license, maybe sell insurance." ~ Mike Tyson
"Friendth, Romanth, countrymen, lend me your earsth." ~ Mike Tyson
"I could never stop drugs, I could never stop drinking, until I received my spiritual awakening." ~ Mike Tyson
"I can quit boxing now and practically go into any kind of business and I'll be successful just as well as I was in boxing." ~ Mike Tyson
"You're sweet. I'm going to make sure you kiss me good with those big lips. I'm gonna make you my girlfriend." ~ Mike Tyson
"I love acting. I love stage work, more than anything. It's just live. It's right there in front of you. If you make a mistake, they know it and you know it. I won't do anything where I feel like I'm just making a fool out of myself. By doing that, I'm able to rise to my highest potential." ~ Mike Tyson
"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." ~ Mike Tyson
"I never think of physical fighting. It's always spiritual. Fighting is spiritual." ~ Mike Tyson
"I don't do nothin' unless I risk humiliating myself and really embarrassing myself. When I have that hanging over my head, it allows me to rise to the occasion." ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm just happy I'm not a phoney." ~ Mike Tyson
"Most of my fans are too sensitive. I’m a cruel and cold and hard person. I’ve been abused in every way you can imagine. Save your tears. I lost my sensitivity. You embarrass me when you cry." ~ Mike Tyson
"It's just what I'm born to do, I'm born to entertain people. I could do it for thirty-thousand people or three people, it's just what I know how to do. My soul objective only is for me to have the audience say 'when's the next time I can see him?' That's what I do." ~ Mike Tyson
"Kindness and humbleness are really good qualities to possess. But, if you have to use the word humble, it means you're not humble. And if you're not humble to this world, this world will thrust humbleness upon you." ~ Mike Tyson
"Becoming a vegan gave me another opportunity to live a healthy life. I was so congested from all the drugs and bad cocaine, I could hardly breathe, [I had] high blood pressure, [was] almost dying [and had] arthritis. And once I became a vegan all that stuff diminished." ~ Mike Tyson
"Quayle said the worst thing that happened to him was that he never trusted his own judgment. I said from now on I am going to go with my own judgment." ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm not afraid to be a jerk or anything and laugh at myself anymore." ~ Mike Tyson
"This is a weird feeling in my life I have to deal with, not being a violent man anymore when my whole life's reputation was built on being extremely violent. I just don't know how to deal with that right now. I don't even go to strip clubs no more. I don't know who I am sometimes, but I am not the guy I used to be. I'm not an angel or anything. I'm still lascivious, periodically. I'm just looking for some balance in my life." ~ Mike Tyson
"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." ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm happy because - I'm not doing anything deceitful, I think, to my family. I'm successful because I don't have to sleep with one of my friends' girlfriends or wife or something. That's why I'm successful, that's success to me. I'm not dead, I'm not in the gutter - that's success to me." ~ Mike Tyson
"Sometimes you have to wait for the right deal. They all seem good, at least at first, and they may make you some quick money. But when the right deal comes, and it fits into your [overall] plan, it's just overwhelming success. Sometimes, with the long-term deals, you have to take a risk if you're going to get a reward. It's exactly like fighting. Sometimes you have to take chances to get that huge win." ~ Mike Tyson
"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." ~ Mike Tyson
"There are nine million people who see me in the ring and hate my guts. Most of them are white. That's okay. Just spell my name right." ~ Mike Tyson
"I paid a worker at New York's zoo to re-open it just for me and Robin (his wife). When we got to the gorilla cage there was 1 big Silverback gorilla there just bullying all the other gorillas. They were so powerful but their eyes were like an innocent infant. I offered the attendant $10,000 to open the cage and let smash that silverback's snotbox! He declined." ~ Mike Tyson
"No one who isn't an extremist can understand the mind of an extremist." ~ Mike Tyson
"Common sense is so very simple but very difficult to grasp." ~ Mike Tyson
"He was screaming like my wife." ~ Mike Tyson
"Some people try to get you out of slavery for you to be their slave." ~ Mike Tyson
"I think I'll take a bath in his blood." ~ Mike Tyson
"All praise is to Allah, I'll fight any man, any animal, if Jesus were here I'd fight him too." ~ Mike Tyson
"One day some guy is going to get a billion-dollar fight." ~ Mike Tyson
"I can deal with adversity." ~ Mike Tyson
"If you have a lawyer, sometimes you can get out of trouble. I've gotten into a lot of trouble because I didn't have a lawyer. I've also had some bad lawyers, too. But the good ones, the ones I liked, they became me. They became whatever situation I was involved in. When I felt pain, so did they. When I succeeded, so did they. They became me. They became whatever the situation was that they became involved with." ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm a man. I lived it and I'm not afraid to die but when I die I'm going to paradise and I'm not worried." ~ Mike Tyson
"I just look around and say, I'm a mess. I don't know why I do things." ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm sorry I let everybody down, I'm fighting just to pay my bills. I don't have the stomach for this anymore... I don't have the desire for it. I feel bad for the people... I wish they could get their money back." ~ Mike Tyson
"If Jesus was here, do you think Jesus would show me any love? Do you think Jesus would love me?" ~ Mike Tyson
"I'am not predictor of fights, but I know when I hit 'em good, the fight is close to an end" ~ Mike Tyson
"I used to have lots of tigers. I had all sorts of exotic pets when I had some money. Before I was broke, I had everything. Pigeons and vultures, lions, tigers, and bears. I had it all." ~ Mike Tyson
"My objective is to destroy anybody over 200 pounds, in the ring or out." ~ Mike Tyson
"I've lived places these guys can't defecate in." ~ Mike Tyson
"It's good to be successful and have financial status but if you're only gonna live for the money, you're only gonna reach a certain status and I'm in there for greatness and peace of mind." ~ Mike Tyson
"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." ~ Mike Tyson
"When I was young, I thought I was a god. Now, I just basically work on staying humble. My priorities changed. Just to be able to try to change them - that was frightening to me." ~ Mike Tyson
"The only thing I do is just pray for inspiration, for a way of thinking, because I don't have any particular goal in sight." ~ Mike Tyson
"I don't want to be grotesque, but when you're 330 pounds, it's hard to wipe your a-. You know?" ~ Mike Tyson
"One of my friends once saw another guy's (criminal) record and said, 'Look, this guy is a born troublemaker, just a loser.' I had to tell him, 'No, that's my record - and it doesn't include my juvenile history.'" ~ Mike Tyson
"Everybody has a gameplan until he gets hit" ~ Mike Tyson
"I think the average person thinks I'm a nut and I deserve whatever happens to me." ~ Mike Tyson
"I sacrifice so much of my life, can I at least get laid?" ~ Mike Tyson
"I can inspire people on how to use money, how to get economically powerful." ~ Mike Tyson
"I like the hip writers: Fitzgerald, the guy who committed suicide, Hemingway, all those guys. Some of them were alcoholics and drug addicts but they had fun. They were real people. They formed the culture of American literature. Hemingway admired Tolstoy, Tolstoy admired Pushkin, and Mailer admired Hemingway. It all flows down. The greats are all connected. One day I'm gonna write a book myself. The first chapter will be about what a rough deal my momma got. She believed in you guys and your society." ~ Mike Tyson
"I haven't been with a woman in nine months." ~ Mike Tyson
"I feel bad about my outlook, how I feel about people and society, and that I'll never be part of society the way I should." ~ Mike Tyson
"I like doing other things. I like getting high, hanging out with my kids. I like drinking. I have so many demons." ~ Mike Tyson
"I'm just trying to change my life because I'm not above killing any drug dealer for money." ~ Mike Tyson
"Man is not meant to be humble, he’s meant to be humbled." ~ Mike Tyson
"I was very dedicated and serious about fighting. I'd read about all the fighters. I found out where they came from, knew about their mothers and their fathers . . . I just read all about their lives, their training." ~ Mike Tyson