Mick Foley Quotes

'An Unquiet Mind' wasn't hard to write in terms of the actual writing of it.

With all editing, no matter how sensitive - and I've been very lucky here - I react sulkily at first, but then I settle down and get on with it, and a year later I have my book in my hand.

When I was first approached about doing an autobiography, I said, 'absolutely not.' But when I sat down, memories came pouring out. It wrote very quickly - I think there was an emotional impulse, because once I started in, the story itself carried me along. It was a very intense writing period and took a year and change to finish.

In the mid-nineties, I quit my job as a senior feature writer at 'The Mail' on Sunday in the U.K. and became a 'ghost writer,' collaborating with politicians, pop stars, psychologists, soldiers and sporting legends who needed help in penning their autobiographies.

I wrote four novels under the name Amy Silver. The first one was commissioned, and I was given basically the whole plot and the characters. They told me what to do, and I went straight away and did it. After that, I continued, and I was coming up with more my own ideas, although they did steer me.

It was a compromise. There was a sense that I could write my own memoirs, and Larry [Grobel] would help me down the line, or maybe not, maybe he was too close to me.

I was working on a book about health and wellness, and nobody was interested in that from me. Thankfully, my cowriters reached out and sold me on the idea of doing an autobiography.

I know the way WWE works. Things change last minute.

Guys like Jack Lanza, Pat Patterson, Bruce Pritchard, Tom Pritchard - those guys all helped me get a tryout. And I'd never been in the ring, so they went on a lot of faith and signed me and thought that they could help mold me into a WWE superstar. And now I'm glad they did, because that was a big turning point in my life.

Writing a memoir begins a process that doesn't necessarily end with publication. You begin to think about family life and stories and relationships, and those are ongoing.

I know a lot of editors who are very bitter about the directors they work with. They feel they could have done a better job, and I say to them, 'Oh really? Why don't you go try - it's not easy.'

What better time to write a memoir than the big 3-0?

Being the writer is merely control freak level two. You've got to get to control freak level one.

Boxing saved my life. There were a lot of gangs and I was hanging around with the wrong people.

When you're with WWE, you are operating within very fine boundaries that you cannot step outside of.

I left WWE because I was utterly miserable wrestling at the time and I needed to get away from the business.

I always wanted to write. But honestly I'm glad I didn't do it back when I was twenty-five or so, when it's now clear to me that I was a very poor writer and could've ruined my career before it even started.

It might surprise people to know that the person who convinced me to write the third memoir - 'The Hardcore Diaries' - was actually Vince McMahon.

In the early Seventies, I started writing a little autobiographical novel about my childhood - I made it into a mystery story.

The creative autonomy in 'Lucha Underground' is more than I felt in WWE. There is more willingness from the creative and production team to listen to input from the wrestlers in 'Lucha Underground.'

With the likes of Rey Mysterio back in WWE, I find myself watching him and feeling inspired and that I need to get better and get to that next level.

When you are in WWE, you're really strapped down by their rules and writing.

No one reads my books until they're finished because I don't want feedback. It confuses me, and it changes things; if I get too much feedback, I get thrown off my path.

It's the WWE; it's Vince McMahon's show. He lays out what he wants from you. It's not always going to be what I want.

Anytime you're sitting there writing a book about yourself, it's a pretty self-fulfilling prophecy, I guess.