I can't walk in an airport, walk into a gym, where the kids in the gym don't come to me and ask me about Allen and tell me he's their favorite player of all time. And everywhere I go in airports, people look at me, and they, 'You're Allen's coach.'
I'm looking at the belt on the top of the bag across from me, and it still hasn't fully hit me. There are multiple stages to all of this, but I know that every time I walk into a gym or go to a new locker room since I won the title, I've felt like the world champion.
I was once arrested with [Allen] Ginsburg. He was a big help to me. He was one of the few people who read unknown writer's work. Maybe he was just hustling me. He liked to flirt, Allen. They called him a monster but he was only falling in love.
If I walk on the street, if I go to a restaurant, people come to me and say: "Can we take a photo together? Can you give me your autograph?" They would bring their expensive Armani or Prada wallet to sign. Other people who are desperate show me a photo of their dead daughter and ask: Can you support me? I tell them: How can I? Morally, of course, I sympathize with you. But I cannot support you and you cannot support me. This is the condition of this society. We are separated.
Twenty-five years ago I couldn`t walk down the street without being recognized. Now I can put a cap on, walk anywhere and no one pays me any attention. They don`t ask me about my movies and they don`t ask me about my salad dressing because they don`t know who I am. Am I happy about this? You bet.
You can't assume anything in politics. That's why every Saturday I walk around my district. I talk to the longshoremen in Charlestown. I listen to the people in East Boston and their concern on the airport noise. I walk down to the Star Market in Porter Square, and people tell me about meat prices.
My coach, Robert Allen, helped me a lot. He had more influence on my growth as a player than anyone else.
I was 23, and all sorts of people were coming in and out and watching me, like Steve Allen and Bette Midler. David Brenner certainly took me under his wing. To drive home to my little dump in New Jersey often knowing that Steve Allen said, 'You got it' - that validation kept me going in a big, big way.
I love when people tell me that I was gonna be a bust. I enjoy when people tell me, 'You suck. You can't dribble. You can't shoot,' because it's like, gotta go to the gym.
One of the big misconceptions about me is that I walk around in mini-skirts and high heels twenty-four seven and go to the gym in heels.
The love I was getting from the gym, I wasn't getting at home. That actually glued me to the gym. It made me always work harder and want to come back.
I would ask my mother to show me how to walk - and she did show me. That's why I think it's funny when people say, 'Did so-and-so teach you how to walk?' And I always say, 'You must be talking about my mother, because it was my mother who taught me how to walk.'
I'm in the gym - that's my full-time job. I leave it all in there. When I walk out of that gym I am now the husband, the friend and the father.
Going to the gym was never about 'working out' like it is for most people. To me, It was a matter of life or death. It was either me or the weights-and I was going to win. I've always had that competitive streak, whether it was in the gym, on the stage, or In anything else I did.
It's got difficult for me to walk down the street without people stopping me to ask for an autograph or to talk to me about boxing.
I'm not a huge gym person, so I try to stay away from the gym. But I love to run on the beach or go for a walk. It's better than riding a stationary bike.
One of my brothers teaches karate at our gym and also handles the administrative side of the gym. My other brother is a fighter like me and teaches a class at the gym. So my brothers are always at the gym together training.