Mickey Rourke Quotes

I started acting when I was 5 years old. And I was pretty well known for a while. Your self-esteem and your identity start to become wrapped up in that celebrity, and when that starts to fade away, your self-esteem and your identity start to fade away with it.

People recognize me - but if you've been in the public eye as long as I have and people don't recognize you, I feel bad about myself.

I don’t care what you say about me, as long as you say something about me, and as long as you spell my name right.

I try not to let myself get too wrapped up in the image of whatever my books have become in the outside world.

People care about my fame, not me. But that's fine. I have my own life.

If I wake up one day and people tell me I'm not sexy, I'm not going to stop making good music and having fun. That 'sex symbol' thing is typically part of being in the limelight. You better be very talented in your music, but it's good to be nice to look at, I guess.

I think it would collapse my heart if I was super famous. I don't have the nerve for it, I'm too anxious. I don't know how you're not obsessed with how people perceive you, because they're real people, you know? You can convince yourself that they don't really know you, and that's true, but how can it not hurt your feelings?

A famous person to themselves, they don't get up in the morning and think, I'm famous. I'm not famous to me. Famous is a perception.

I think of myself as an actor first, not a sex symbol. Do I think I'm sexy? No, that's someone else's judgment, and I honestly don't think you can try to be sexy and really succeed.

Everyone at school knew who my dad was. It made me a little self-conscious a little introverted because I had a lot of attention drawn towards me, but in a way I guess it gives you a little bit of a celebrity skin, even though I wasn't a celebrity.

I feel like when people judge me they're not judging me, because they don't know who I am.

I needed to find my own worth and shake the image after having done 'Showgirls' at age 21.

I don't care about how many times somebody recognizes my face.

Fame is a weird one. You need to distance yourself from it. People see a value in you that you don't see yourself.

I'm not the type of woman who shows off my body; I'm a vocalist and I'm a writer and I think people see that more so than they see anything else. That's just who I am.

I never, ever see myself as a celebrity or famous.

I don't walk around the street thinking, 'I'm Michael Madsen,' but then again, I am that guy, and sometimes people do take notice of me. Sometimes it's really not comfortable.

I come all wreathed in a reputation the press has made for me. Judge me on my actions. That's all that counts.

If somebody wants to think of me as a movie star, that's fine, that's great. It sort of makes me giggle.

I never considered myself a celebrity. I hate that word. It's tawdry.

In a world where a lot of people's sense of self is dominated by how many people are following their Twitter feed, what does fame really do, and why is it important?

I have never looked at myself as a star.

I don't think I'm that recognizable.

I don't feel like a celebrity. I did not sign 'Udta Punjab' to increase my fan following.

I don't see myself being perceived as a Bollywood star and I wouldn't want to be that either.