Quotes from Bret Hart

I think I had a really hard-working and authentic wrestling style, so people liked the way I was - that I was a 'no-quit' kind of wrestler - and I was very realistic and credible in my style.

Since retiring, there's only been one time I actually dreamed about wrestling. In my dream, I was wrestling against Kurt Angle. I had him clamped in a headlock. I was breathing hard, and I remember telling myself, 'This is only a dream. It's not real.' But the longer I held Kurt in a headlock, I started to believe it was real.

I think it's hard to differentiate between your wrestling character and your real character - you kind of end up being both. I've always been my wrestling character in and out of the ring and in and out of the dressing room, and I was always really respected in the dressing room by the other wrestlers.

I love tag team wrestling, and it's different than all the other matches.

I think the best wrestling always needs to pretend to be real, and Vince Russo's wrestling is so pathetically far-fetched and phony that I think he does a disservice to his wrestlers and the business.

Triple H is a former bodybuilder. He's all about bodies. He thought that Hulk Hogan was the greatest wrestler in the world. They think Ultimate Warrior was the greatest wrestler in the world because that's what they're attracted to, but he's not really a wrestling fan like I grew up. I was a wrestling fan.

I often run into wrestlers at comic conventions or wrestling events, and it could be Tito Santana or Demolition, and I'm just flooded with memories. It's always nice to see one of your old mates, especially the ones who I knew from further back.

I got into wrestling to make some money, see the world, and meet girls.

Growing up in wrestling - and I have been involved in wrestling, really, my entire life - I learned right from the get-go that you never forget your fans. They are the ones that put your food on the table and pay your bills.

Wrestling fans dictate policy; they really do. What direction each wrestler takes usually revolves around what the fans think of them.

I never trained in pro wrestling with The Sheik, but I did amateur wrestling with pro wrestlers in my dad's basement.

I tip my hat to the long list of girls that have really taken wrestling up a notch.

I had wrestling in my blood.

Something happened in 1997 that changed the whole industry, at least for the next five, six, or seven years. It wasn't about the 24-inch arms and the cartoon characters anymore. It was about the wrestling and what we were doing in the ring physically.

All the times they put tag titles on me, Intercontinental titles on me, or the world title on me, the only time I couldn't defend the title was when I had to forfeit the belt when I quit WCW and retired from wrestling forever.

It's hard to explain, but it's a beautiful thing to watch in wrestling when someone loses in the exact perfect way.

If you look at wrestling when I started to get my big break back in 1992, I changed wrestling from the cartoons of Hulk Hogan and Iron Sheik and the matches with the leg drop and the hand behind the ear and the playing to the crowd. They were just cartoon characters if you ask me.

My dad was always genuine with the fans and said, 'You must appreciate every single one of them,' and I always did. I always tried to make time for every autograph or every picture. What's an autograph? It's the simplest thing in the world.

Whenever I discuss my family, I inevitably think of my brother Owen.

After being signed by WWE, Edge, Christian, Mark Henry, Giant Silva, Test and Ken Shamrock all trained at my house. I had a pool room with an indoor pool and a garden behind it. I took out the garden and put in a wrestling ring.

Employees who work for WWF, they have better benefits than the wrestlers do. The ones they should take care of is the wrestlers.

The feud with Jerry Lawler was one of the best feuds I ever had. He was the perfect heel and kept his heat. People hated him.

I'm the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be.

My dad was a shooter, or submission wrestler, and he loved to stretch anyone who dared to show up at his door. I remember him stretching the daylights out of Father Roberts, the Catholic priest who baptized all the Hart kids. Father Roberts got closer to God in my father's basement dungeon than he felt comfortable with. But Stu was non-denominational; he stretched a rabbi once too.