Jake LaMotta

“My nose was broken six times, my hands six times, a few fractured ribs. Fifty stitches over my eyes. But the only place I got hurt was out of the ring.”

“You can't go into the ring and be a nice guy.”

“I purposely lost a fight to Billy Fox because they promised me that I would get a shot to fight for the title if I did.”

“There was only one thing I wanted out of life. That was to be the champ.”

“Ask most guys what their ambition is, and they'll say they want to get rich. But when they get rich, they discover it's not what they wanted at all. I don't want to be rich.”

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.”

“I guess God blessed me with a hard head, because I really didn't feel punches.”

“I was a no-good bastard.”

“God's been pretty good to me. He made me duck all those punches that were supposed to land.”

“I ask for personal appearance fees because I've earned them. I deserve them. My presence at events is what they need, so they ought to pay for it.”

“I'm the Godfather of Boxing. Everything is out in the open with me. What you see is what you get.”

“Fear is unnecessary.”

“I wanted to get punished, and I took unnecessary punishment when I was fighting.”

“If I got a beating for something, I usually deserved it.”

“I waited all those years for a title shot, and when I finally got it, I had to pay $20,000 for the opportunity. My purse was only $18,000. So to make money, I had to bet $10,000 on myself at 8-5. That was how it was in those days.”

“Big money causes me too much trouble with my ex-wives and the government. All I want is to keep busy and to be comfortable.”

“Whenever I did have a lot of money, I got in trouble.”

“Forward, always moving forward, from the time I can remember - a kid. I was short, and the big guys would take advantage; I had to turn myself into a body puncher. By that time I was in reform school, they'd have a boxing match every week; they'd bring guys in from outside to fight me.”

“I been in jail twice. The first time was reform school: they got me for carrying burglar's tools, something like that. The morals charge was a frame-up.”

“I conditioned myself many years ago that nobody could hurt me.”