Mickey Rooney Quotes & Sayings

Joe Louis was one of my closest friends ... I'm a great boxing fan. I used to go to the American Legion Stadium in Hollywood, every Friday night for 15 years. Down the aisle would come Lupe Velez, Johnny Weismuller, Mae West. All at ringside. — Mickey Rooney

I don't pick the roles. Your agent gets a call for you and you go and they all get together, everybody has fun at the reading, and they say, "There's chemistry here." So that's how it happens. — Mickey Rooney

If you listen, you'll learn. If you talk over each other, you don't accomplish anything. — Mickey Rooney

When I say I do, the justice of the peace replies, 'I know, I know ... ' — Mickey Rooney

On Hollywood turning its back on him: I wasn't in the club. You see, I'm not going to be a stroker. I never have been all my life. — Mickey Rooney

There were times when I was broke, when I was down in Florida and I had to go to cocktail parties for 500 bucks - to see the guy that used to be in pictures. I'm not ashamed of that. I've never done anything that I was ashamed of. I've done a lot of things I didn't mean to do. — Mickey Rooney

Someone once asked me what I want on my epitaph when I pass away. Just the words 'I tried.' That's what this game of life is all about. Trying. There's the tryers, the criers, and the liars. — Mickey Rooney

I just want to be a professional. I couldn't live without acting. — Mickey Rooney

I keep going because if you stop, you stop. Why retire? Inspire. — Mickey Rooney

Don't break me up - I wouldn't offend any person, be they black, Asian or whatever. — Mickey Rooney

The audience and I are friends. They allowed me to grow up with them. I've let them down several times. They've let me down several times. But we're all family. — Mickey Rooney

I buy women shoes and they use them to walk away from me. — Mickey Rooney

When I was 19 years old, I was the number one star of the world for two years; when I was 40, nobody wanted me; I couldn't get a job. — Mickey Rooney

I don't regret anything I've ever done. I only wish I could have done more. — Mickey Rooney

I made all these great musicals with Judy Garland. It was all about me going into a barn and saying: 'Let's put on a show.' That's what me and Judy did. — Mickey Rooney

I was born in Brooklyn, delivered by a Chinese doctor on a table in a boarding house on Sept. 23, 1920. — Mickey Rooney

Look, I come from vaudeville, I come from burlesque, I come from heartaches, I come from sadness, I come from gladness, I come from work and sweat and respect for the craft. — Mickey Rooney

Life is an infiltration course. We all try and get through it. We all try and get through it unscathed - maybe not hurt, not bruised. No bones broken, maybe a few hearts here and there. — Mickey Rooney

I belong to the public. The public made me. The public can break me. I owe them my life. — Mickey Rooney

You will always pass failure on the way to success. — Mickey Rooney

Hollywood has unfortunately become a memory. It's nothing but a sign on the side of a hill. — Mickey Rooney

Yeah, a few of the films I made were so bad they didn't get released - they escaped. — Mickey Rooney

This is the kind of world I was born in, one in which I had only one reason for existence: pleasing others. — Mickey Rooney

I'll never make another Hardy picture ... I'm fed up with these dopey, insipid parts. How long can a guy play a jerk kid? I'm 27 years old. I've been divorced once and separated from my second wife. I have two boys of my own. I spent almost two years in the army. It's time Judge Hardy went out and bought me a double-breasted suit. — Mickey Rooney

It's confusing. I've had so many wives and so many children I don't know which house to go to first on Christmas. — Mickey Rooney

Everyone who worked on 'The Fox and the Hound' is important. We're all lucky to be in a business that we love. — Mickey Rooney

Sometimes the transition from being in control of your life to having absolutely no control is swift, but other times it is so gradual that you wonder exactly when it truly began. — Mickey Rooney

I'm the only man in the world with a marriage licence made out to whom it may concern. — Mickey Rooney

All the muddy waters of my life cleared up when I gave myself to Christ. — Mickey Rooney

Had I been brighter, the ladies been gentler, the Scotch been weaker, had the gods been kinder, had the dice been hotter, this could have been a one-sentence story: Once upon a time I lived happily ever after. — Mickey Rooney

God bless the universe, God bless Japanese, Chinese, Indians, all of them, and let's have peace. — Mickey Rooney

Now. Now is the most important time of all of your young lives. And what does now stand for - N-O-W? No Other Way. That's the only time - NOW! — Mickey Rooney

Meadowlark Lemon is one very clever man, unique and truly one of a kind. — Mickey Rooney

I came from a poor family. My father was from Glasgow, Scotland; my mother's brothers were brakemen on the railroad. We didn't have anything but mush for breakfast. — Mickey Rooney

When I open a refrigerator door and the light goes on, I want to perform. — Mickey Rooney

A lot of people have asked me how short I am. Since my last divorce, I think I'm about $100,000 short. — Mickey Rooney

I've been coming back like a rubber ball for years. — Mickey Rooney

I just want to make sure that I give the animators everything they need, so they have plenty of choices to match their animation. — Mickey Rooney

Nowadays, it is fashionable for agents to be out. When you call them, they're always "out." It's in, you see, to be out. If they're in, they're out. So, they're always out. That way, they'll be in. — Mickey Rooney

My marriage license reads, 'To whom it may concern,' — Mickey Rooney

Dont retire - inspire ... Theres a lot to be done — Mickey Rooney

Clark Gable once said to me, "'Acting school?' [If you go,] I'll kill ya!" — Mickey Rooney

If I ever complain to an agent about anything, he always has a pained look on his face, like, "How can you be so ungrateful? Why, Mick, I just named my yacht after you!" — Mickey Rooney

Always get married in the morning. That way if it doesn't work out, you haven't wasted the whole day. — Mickey Rooney

The film The Last Temptation of Christ, no matter what its defenders say, was a slap in the face to Christians everywhere. — Mickey Rooney

Love lasts only for months, sometimes only for minutes. But if you like somebody, it's for a lifetime! — Mickey Rooney

I was a thirteen-year-old boy for thirty years. — Mickey Rooney

When I was nineteen years old, I was the number-one star for two years. When I was forty, nobody wanted me. I couldn't get a job. — Mickey Rooney

You always pass failure on your way to success. — Mickey Rooney

To those seniors, and especially elderly veterans like myself, I want to tell you this: You are not alone, and you having nothing to be ashamed of. If elder abuse happened to me, it can happen to anyone. I want you to know that you deserve better. — Mickey Rooney

Everything is about looking for happiness and God. That was a sentiment shared by my dear friend Ronald Reagan. — Mickey Rooney

All I want is to live a peaceful life, to regain my life and be happy. — Mickey Rooney

You've got to recognize, there will never be another you. It has nothing to do with ego; it happens to be the truth. There will never be another person the same. There'll never be another you. — Mickey Rooney

Women liked me because I made them laugh. — Mickey Rooney

I hear Jerry Falwell every Sunday here talking about the devil and Hollywood ... I'm gonna write him a letter. Hollywood wasn't built on filth and dirt - it was built on talent. — Mickey Rooney

I've been stealing scenes all my life. — Mickey Rooney

I didn't want to be short. I've tried to pretend that being a short guy didn't matter. I tried to make up for being short by affecting a strut, by adopting the voice of a much bigger man, by spending more money than I made, by tipping double or triple at bars and restaurants, by dating tall, beautiful women. — Mickey Rooney

If Barbra Steisand wants to make a picture called 'My Pink Fingernail,' the studios will go, 'Gee, Barbra, what a wonderful idea! Money is no object! Take two years in preproduction and write the music, and you'll direct.' — Mickey Rooney