Wrestler

I busted my nose 11 times. My fingers are all busted. My ribs. Both my arms. I can't straighten them out.

I watched other boys play baseball and other games, but I was too sickly to join in the fun.

Franco Corelli is my favorite tenor.

I'm an opera lover.

I am not a guy who can write speeches and when I speak I speak from the heart, I just say what I feel and what I believe in.

I never had a gimmick. All I had was a pair of boots and a pair of tights.

In 1959 I had broken the bench press record by lifting 565 pounds, and I could lift 715 pounds from a squat.

Professional wrestlers are human beings like anybody else.

I always used to get goosebumps in Madison Square Garden, because as soon as I started making my entrance, people would be chanting my name. 'BRU-NO! BRU-NO!'

A lotta stuff has been written about me that I never said. Stories that were lies. One guy wrote that young as I was during World War II, I actually got a rifle and fought off the Germans. Which is ridiculous, insane. I was just six.

Kurt Angle, I knew he was from Pittsburgh and I knew his background very well and his amateur days and, of course, going to the Olympics and all that. When he went into professional wrestling, he was very good at adjusting and displaying a lot of great moves. It was something that the fans could look at a say, hey, that's wrestling.

In Europe, I was just a little guy... the winters in the mountains were very nasty.

I knew a little bit about training and what it took to transform your body into something impressive looking.

I'm so grateful to America and my hometown of Pittsburgh. I love my city. I'm proud of being from here.

Wrestling isn't looked upon like the other sports of football, baseball, basketball and hockey.

There were promises made to me as far as if I became a professional wrestler, that I was going to be given every opportunity to be a headliner... and that's the only reason why I accepted.

I weighed 84 pounds when I was 14. I was an easy target for the other kids.

I'm not bragging, but my reputation among my peers was Bruno was a horse I never got tired.

Wrestling was my way of making a living. I did the very best I could.

Listen, when I was real young, I thought I was made out of steel. I didn't think anything could hurt me, I was so powerful. But as time goes on, you find out you are not made of steel.