Mickey Rooney Quotations

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

You always pass failure on your way to success.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.'

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

Meeting Bob Hope was meeting a champion. He was not only a great star but an entertainer and a friend of the entire world,

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.

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

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

I was a 14-year-old boy for 30 years.

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

Women liked me because I made them laugh.

I've been short all my life. And if anyone wonders what my dying wish will be, they can stop wondering. That will be easy. I'll just tell them, 'I'll have a short bier.'

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.

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!"

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

My marriage license reads, 'To whom it may concern,'

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

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

And that's the way I have always lived, for the laughs – today. N-O-W. No Other Way.

I'm 74 but I feel like I'm 35. And it isn't work. You know what it is? It's fun, absolute fun. I don't know many people who are fortunate enough to be in a business like that.

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

Hey kids! Let's put on a show!

. . . children - not kids. Kids are goats. I've always spoken of my children as children.

John Frances, Entertainment Chair, of the Friars Club: Of all the roasts that I have produced for the Friars Club, this is the one that I am most excited about. Mickey is one of the Club's dearest friends, and we wanted to honor him in the way we know best.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

Dont retire - inspire...Theres a lot to be done

You always pass failure on the way to success.

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.