Richy Horsley Quotes

Another time, I was at the bar getting a drink and this geezer is stood at the bar with a ciggie in his mouth, trying his best to look rock hard. He takes a drag and points his finger in my face and drawls, 'Don't I know you?'
He was looking snake-eyed at me like a typical big screen gangster.
I stood in front of him and drawled back, 'I don't know, but they call me Richy Horsley,' and then bang, I batter him with a left hook that landed with a strange dull thud. Mr Movie Gangster was stood there leaning against the bar and staring out in to space, knocked out standing up. ~ Stephen Richards

As they crept closer, I decided to make my move first and surprise them. I selected my prey, the biggest one! The reasoning behind this is that if you deck the largest and strongest one out of a group then it sends out a clear-cut message to the rest of them. ~ Stephen Richards

Thank God! He went down in front of the bar on the tiled floor. BANG! The fat bastard, he shattered both knees with the weight of him. My hands were in just a little bit of pain, but I was driven on to keep punching his fat head in by the gratifying squeals I was eliciting from him and, broken hands or not, with the coup de grace ... I knocked him out. ~ Stephen Richards

Lee Duffy was a man apart and someone who only comes around once in a lifetime, a total one off. There have been a lot of things written about him in the press and it's always been from the other side of the coin. There are always two sides to every story and Lee's family have never fully told us their side. They are very distrustful of the press after Lee was made out to be some kind of monster.
If Lee had been born and bred in London, he would have been an icon.
He was Robin Hood, Dick Turpin and Muhammad Ali rolled into one. ~ Stephen Richards

During the depression, people fought each other for boxes of groceries and if you were lucky you might get a few shillings for fighting six rounds. When Jack Johnson was World Heavyweight Champ, back in the early 1900s, Hartlepool had a brilliant boxer called Jasper Carter. People today will never have heard of him, but almost 100 years ago he put Hartlepool on the fistic map. ~ Stephen Richards

My first sparring session with him saw him bullying me around the ring, so I thought fuck this, and when he came back in close, I threw the boxing code of conduct out of the window and hit him with a cracking right hand in to the balls! That sapped the energy out of him and that was the end of that. In the end, I could take anything he threw at me and then I'd come back with mine, which he didn't like and people would comment on how much I'd 'come on'. ~ Stephen Richards

Eventually, it was around midnight, I was told to get ready and put the gloves on. I felt physically depleted and drained of energy, and had no get-up-and-go left in me. I wanted a bed badly, not a boxing ring. ~ Stephen Richards

He was very cock sure of himself. He came at me and threw a big slow right, but he was so slow that he had telegraphed it to me and I'm ready for it and block it. I put a couple of big jabs on him and he went down like the Titanic, maybe quicker. ~ Stephen Richards

We were called to a pub that had our doormen on, we were told there was fighting. It was he, Big George, but he'd already left. We went in and the bouncers were smashed to bits, shirts ripped off, teeth knocked out, claret and glass everywhere. Single-handedly, George had demolished them, as if they were made out of cardboard. ~ Stephen Richards

When I got off him, I spat the blood that was swamping my mouth in to his face, I looked down at him and it really looked like he was dying ... shit!
The ambulance arrived in about a minute and they got an oxygen mask straight on him and I could see the life draining out of him. You see, this is the problem; we are only human and flesh and blood. ~ Stephen Richards

After my victory at the Warriors 1, the self-proclaimed and well named Monarch of the Underworld, Dave Courtney, came up to me and commended me when he said, 'Richy, you can hit, I'm fucking glad you're not hitting me.' The way Dave said it and the expression on his face made me laugh. ~ Stephen Richards

Usually with a couple of these shots the word 'Goodnight' would show up on their forehead, but he was still on his feet, but backed up and then I battered him with a flurry of combinations: right, left, right, right, right and a sweet right hand and he went down. For good measure, I booted him in the head and turned around and walked fast in to the pub away from the scene. ~ Stephen Richards

I went after him and picked him off with a right, like a predator and was all over him like a rash! I was in to him with a right hand lead and out to inflict pain, but it wasn't all one-sided! This guy was on a wing and a prayer when he threw a chopping right hand that whizzed past me with him on the other end of it ... I was blessed, or something!
I had to turn it on and step it up, because if he connected with one of those shots then I was chicken fodder! I could see that his wasted efforts were tiring him by the second. I boxed him from range and kept tying him up, I was now in to a rhythm, I swung lefts and rights, all of them smashing in to his head with an unrelenting ferocity.
By now his face was covered in blood and he was about to go down when the ref stepped in and stopped it. I won; I had defeated Goliath. ~ Stephen Richards

I'd only gone and whacked his front teeth out and they'd stuck in my hand, I still have the scar to this very day. A few weeks later, I got banged up for it; he never went to the police until two weeks later. Somebody had put him wise about getting compensation from the Criminal Injuries Board. Anyway, the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) kicked it in to touch as a 'no go' case. ~ Stephen Richards

The films of Saturday Night Fever and Grease were all the rage and I'll admit, I went to see Grease at the local ABC Cinema with a few of my mates. You'd be surprised at how many so-called 'hard' lads that would be stood in the queue waiting to see Grease. ~ Stephen Richards

In a split second he went for me, he never tried to punch me though, he went to grab me so he could use his strength for some rough and tumble, but as fast as he came rushing at me, I equally as fast unleashed a furious right uppercut (if you can deliver a uppercut properly you'll never go far wrong because when they land, your legs cave in) on to his chin and his legs went from under him like a baby deer. They say, the bigger you are, the harder you fall, that is correct! He hit the deck like a broken lift. ~ Stephen Richards

He lost a few teeth and wet himself in to the next century. I looked up at his mates and none of them would look me in the face. ~ Stephen Richards

The crowd started cheering as soon as they seen him, he was one of them, a local lad from Lancashire. In the first round, I tried to put him away but my punches had nothing in them, I might as well as been hitting thin air. It was then that I knew I had to really dig deep if I wanted to hear the final bell; I threw a clever little corkscrew right. A great shot, but ineffective unless it hits with some vigour, which it didn't! ~ Stephen Richards

Fear was keeping this loon going, as he was scrambling under the tables in this packed club, it was as if he was in a Carry On film and trying to hide from me. As the bouncers arrived, I was putting the boot in to the plonker without much success. He was like a bumblebee on speed! ~ Stephen Richards

After about five minutes had passed, I went outside and they'd gone. When I checked my hand to see if my knuckles were swelling or any bruising was coming up I got a shock, there was false tan on my knuckles! I still chuckle about that to this day. ~ Stephen Richards

When I reached the age of five, I was told I was adopted as a baby, at that time I was gun and holster mad, a bit of a lone ranger, as was the rage in those days. My parents, Tom and Brenda, told me they went to see all these special kids and they picked me out from them. Waiting for my reaction, I looked up at my parents and chimed, 'Did I have my guns on? ~ Stephen Richards

I must have been crazy for taking that fight, I should have told Anth to get on his bike, but what made it worse was I knew if I were in shape I'd have beaten him inside of two rounds. Some people reckon fighters must have a little madness in them, I reckon they might be right. ~ Stephen Richards

I moved in distance and as the fight unfolded, I landed a big, destructive, hard-hitting right hand (The Muckspreader) smack on the button and he collapsed in a (muck) heap on the deck, out for the count.
His mates looked at me and never said a word. The big fella was asleep and wasn't moving ... I had flattened him. ~ Stephen Richards

Everyone in the place seen me nut him apart from the ref, it caught him on the blind side. I tried to nut him on the eyebrow so it would split open, but I got him on the forehead. The crowd turned right against me, but I made it to the last bell and lost on a unanimous decision. ~ Stephen Richards

I excused myself to the woman I was with and made my way over to these men. I stopped to ask my friend Buller to watch my back. The thing is, people like this can't be talked to, and so I wasn't going to mess around with this crazed windmill and his sidekick, Don Quixote.
I hit the mouthy crazed windmill with a thumping right, a left, right, smack on the chin; he fell apart and was out for the count before he hit the deck.
I turned to Don Quixote and off he shot like the Disney cartoon character of Speedy Gonzales. ~ Stephen Richards

Boxing in Hartlepool started on the beach at Seaton Carew where the fighters fought bare knuckle. In the early 1900s there was a boxing booth on the corner of Burbank Street known as the 'Blood Tub'.
The Blood Tub always drew the crowds and you were guaranteed a good punch up. Hartlepool was a booming ship port and someone would go round the docks and pick five coloured seamen for what was called an 'All In'. One in each corner and one in the middle and when the bell rang it was every man for himself and the winner was the one left standing after some furious toe-to-toe exchanges. That was always a big crowd puller. ~ Stephen Richards

Everyone used to laugh at him because he was the first one to do it. This was all new to people and it took a bit for everyone to get used to it. Then ... yes, you've guessed, I too dyed my hair and other people followed suit as well and the punk explosion was about to hit the scene in a big way. ~ Stephen Richards

In 1972, my idol Gordon Banks was seriously injured in a car accident and lost an eye. He was still England goalkeeper and the world's Number One. I was absolutely gutted for Banksie. His career was over prematurely. He did make a comeback in America for a time, but he said he felt like people were coming to watch a bit of a circus act: 'Roll up, roll up! The world's only one-eyed goalkeeper.' And so he retired from football for good. When he lost his eye, I wanted to give him one of mine, that's how much I thought of him. ~ Stephen Richards

Why hang about in long drawn out fights, you want them to be over as quick as possible and I was blessed with a pitiless punch that sorted the men out from the boys. The only drawback to having such a vicious punch is that my hands have been broken so many times over the years. ~ Stephen Richards

Self-pity is the most destructive of all narcotics. ~ Sebastian Horsley

Teaching is a sacred art. This is why the noblest druid is not the one who conjures fires and smoke but the one who brings the news and passes on the histories. The teacher, the bard, the singer of tales is a freer of men's minds and bodies, especially when he roams without allegiance to one chieftain or another. But he is also a danger to the masters if he insists upon telling the truth. The truth will inevitably cause tremors in those who cling to power without honoring justice. ~ Kate Horsley

It is better to listen to a crow that lives in trees than to a learned man who lives only in ideas. ~ Kate Horsley

I do not understand a man who does not want to know all that he can know. Why would anyone choose ignorance? If he chooses ignorance because he is lay, then he is a fool, for the ignorant are put to hard labor digging and hauling stones for masters who tell them they need no knowledge. If a man must labor from dawn to dusk to avoid a blow on the head and to earn a cup of grain, he has no time to gain knowledge and remains a slave to masters. I think, therefore, that is is a worthy vocation to free a man enough that he can learn who he is and what he is capable of, where he came from and what philosophies steer his life. ~ Kate Horsley

I am not an intellectual. An intellectual is someone who looks at a sausage and thinks of Picasso, whereas I just say 'pass the mustard'. ~ Sebastian Horsley

Think of how many boring, blameless lives are brightened by the blazing indiscretion of me. ~ Sebastian Horsley

When you change a belief you change a mental construction and, therefore, your life. ~ Kevin Horsley

Knowledge often spoils devotion. ~ Kate Horsley

I didn't want to tell Mother I worked as a journalist. She thought I was a prostitute. Locking yourself in a room and inventing characters and conversations which do not exit is no way for a grown man to behave. ~ Sebastian Horsley

The problem with compassion is that it is not photogenic. ~ Sebastian Horsley

I like living sparsely. In the main room, there's no furniture - no tables, no chairs, no coffee table - not even a decaffeinated coffee table. ~ Sebastian Horsley

The function of music is to release us from the boredom of existence. ~ Sebastian Horsley

We can't all be stars because someone has to sit on the curb and clap as I go by. ~ Sebastian Horsley

People either hate me or dislike me - but I realized that people aren't against you, they are for themselves. We're all prejudiced in favor of ourselves. ~ Sebastian Horsley

The problem I've got is that I really, really like drugs. I love everything about them. It is horrific being sober all the time-utterly awful. ~ Sebastian Horsley

But I knew that I would have to live forever with what I did on that night of dying, and that if I chose to be a coward, I would have to repeat such cowardice over and over again in order to justify that it had ever occurred. ~ Kate Horsley

Perhaps it is weariness that causes seers not to act on what they see; for whereas the wisdom of the world can be vast, it includes the many futilities. Ideas do not have legs with which to run and hands with which to craft. They are wisps of smoke floating into a universe of pain and ignorance that overwhelm the capacity of one small human body and the mind trapped inside it. ~ Kate Horsley

It's really interesting because 50 years ago, if you didn't wear a hat everyone looked at you. It just proves that everything is fashion. ~ Sebastian Horsley

The self is a thought that tells itself that thought is a self. ~ Jasun Horsley

We build our character as a carapace to keep away the fear of the abyss. That's what our character is for. ~ Sebastian Horsley

I have wanted only one thing to make me happy. That thing is everything. ~ Sebastian Horsley

Power does not willingly give up its place to truth. ~ Kate Horsley

People who have a reputation for being evil are usually good. ~ Sebastian Horsley

It is noble to pity a man who is cruel because he is weak, but it is idiotic and dangerous to allow him to have power. ~ Kate Horsley

To be worthy of assassination takes more than some crappy little book. ~ Sebastian Horsley

My only criticism about Quentin Crisp is that the subversive must be ready to subvert themselves. I may dress for myself, but I undress for everybody else, whereas he never did that - he was never prepared to drop a bomb on everything he did. ~ Sebastian Horsley

But really death seems the least awful thing that can happen to someone ~ Sebastian Horsley

I don't think I'm known for my gifts - I'm known for my gall. I don't want to be just a famous person - I'm too old. ~ Sebastian Horsley

Finally, a principal reason for the lack of attention to "unclean spirits" and Jesus' "acts of power" in the Gospel stories is surely the modern "scientific" frame of mind that developed in the wake of the Enlightenment reduction of reality to what was natural and comprehensible by reason. ~ Richard A. Horsley

Among all the wisdom and facts I learned from Giannon, I also learned the loneliness of incarnation, in which there is inevitably a separation of souls because of the uniqueness of our faces and our experiences. And I learned also the moments when the current of my life joins the current of another life, and I can glimpse for a moment the one flowing body of water we all compose. ~ Kate Horsley

One of the many troubles of growing older is that it gets progressively harder to find a famous historical figure who hadn't yet amounted to anything by the time he was your age. ~ Sebastian Horsley

The universe is neither friendly nor hostile. It is merely indifferent. This makes me ecstatic. ~ Sebastian Horsley

My grandfather was a practising Quaker. My father was a nihilist. But nihilism, if you like, is the beginning of faith anyway. ~ Sebastian Horsley

Jeff walked beside her, sheltering them both under a red and white golfing umbrella. She smiled unconvincingly as she approached Richard. 'Hi, Richy.' He nodded in reply, catching the scent ~ Emily Organ

I don't really know what Americans are like. I've no idea. I know a few things about them. In my imagination, they have warm peachy hearts, whereas the English have horrible spiteful withered hearts - success in England inspires envy - in America, it inspires hope. ~ Sebastian Horsley

I am desperate for attention. But everyone else is too. Everyone has fantasies of fame and greatness. Life for most people is a process of shedding those fantasies. ~ Sebastian Horsley

On Christmas morning, my Mam and Dad were downstairs shouting to me to look out the window.
They'd shout, 'There's Santa.'
Dad used to ring this bell and say it was one of Santa's bells on the sleigh. I could hear Santa's bells ringing as I jumped out of bed, really excited and I looked out the bedroom window in to the dark morning, fully expecting to see Santa and co magically flying through the air and maybe even he would spot me and give me a wave.
'I can't see him,' I'd proclaim in sadness and then the bells would stop and I knew he'd have gone to someone else's house, but I also knew that he hadn't forgotten me.
I'd run downstairs and in to the room whilst still in my pyjamas where the prezzies were. The excitement was unbelievable and my parents used to buzz as they watched my face beaming up at them in joy. ~ Stephen Richards

My theory is that the way you cope with the depths will ascertain the heights that you reach - they are intimately connected - and if you have a lust for life, you are also going to have a lust for death. ~ Sebastian Horsley

I keep the shutters closed because I like to work in a hermetic environment. I like mirrors. When you look out of the window, all you see is ugliness, but when you look in the mirror all you see is beauty. ~ Sebastian Horsley

Use words to please, to instruct, to soothe. Then stop speaking. ~ Kate Horsley

I would live in a world of Christ-like humans, but not one full of Christians, may God forgive me. ~ Kate Horsley

I used to have about a hundred suits in my late twenties and early thirties when my stock was riding high and I was rich. ~ Sebastian Horsley