"I come with everything I have," he said. "I come with the love that Real Madrid awakens in me, with the responsibility that Real Madrid demands, with the excitement of a child who hasn't won anything... I come with absolutely everything.
"This business of promising things, like was done 20 years ago, I don't go in for those stories. If you ask me if I have dreams, I have dreams."
Asked how he has changed since his first spell at the club, Mourinho pointed to greater maturity rather than a different identity.
"I've changed so much. I'd say the same DNA, obviously, I can't hide or try to be what I'm not, but with much more maturity, less emotional, more controlled."
He credited experience above all else.
"Learning from experiences, yes. This job of being a coach, I think, the more experience we have, the more deja vu moments appear to you, the more quality you have. But not regretting this or that, because regretting something that has happened doesn't help you at all."
He also explained, with humour, a visible bruise on his face.
"No, it wasn't a fight. The bruise I have was from poor Lacosta, a Castilla youth player, who hit me with a shot, I had my glasses on and it caught me. But that's not why he wasn't called up for the last match."
On the dressing room he has inherited, Mourinho described a squad hungry for success.
"I've found a dressing room with a lot of desire to win as the end product of hard work," he said, adding: "They've protected me from this version of myself, which is also mine."
His demands, he explained, are rooted in common sense.
"Telling them you have to arrive an hour before training, not five minutes before, is common sense. This is modern football: you have to arrive earlier, breakfast monitored by the nutritionist, the gym every day to prevent injuries... it's for you, it's for us. Everything I've asked of them is common sense."
His personal life has shifted since his first spell in Madrid.
"Now they're 29 and 26 and they live in London, and my wife spends a lot of time with them," he said of his children, explaining why Valdebebas has become his base. "When I leave here at 6 or 7, it's very comfortable to just stay here."
On Kylian Mbappe, Mourinho did not hold back.
"Mbappe is incredible. He makes me laugh sometimes in training. Because he's too good. He's at a stratospheric level."
He declined to judge last season's struggles.
"It's not for me to judge or analyse what he did last season. It was a strange season, a complicated season for everyone. In the end it's always the same story, Arbeloa and Xabi paid the price. Winning or losing is multifactorial. A lot of people failed last year."
He pointed to Mbappe's early return for pre-season as a signal of intent.
"A guy who could have come on 14 August and turned up on the 12th, that already tells me something."
On the transfer market, Mourinho confirmed his business is effectively done.
"I'm not saying there won't be more signings because the market is open, but if you ask me directly whether it's closed for me... yes. It's closed."
On missing out on Rodri, who joined Barcelona, he insisted he is unconcerned.
"No, I don't miss Rodri, we have solutions, we have quality. I like to think I have the ability to improve players."
He confirmed Madrid had made an approach: "I spoke with him a couple of times and Real Madrid made him a very good offer. Without negotiating with City, the club had contact with Rodri, made him an important offer."
But he admitted the player's hesitation gave him pause.
"Rodri had doubts, he hesitated... and Rodri's doubts created doubts in me. Real Madrid is of a dimension that cannot have players who think twice."
Asked if the outcome was a win for Barcelona, he was blunt: "Victories happen on the pitch, they are the titles. That's where the victories are."
On Vinicius Junior's new contract, Mourinho denied any role in persuading him to stay.
"No, thanks to me? Vinicius is in love with Real Madrid. I only told him: 'Vini, where do you want to go? You've been in Brazil and at Madrid, you know what Madrid is like once you leave, and it's not worth it.' I think what he's felt watching this group grow gave him an important feeling."
The conversation turned to February's clash between Mourinho, then Benfica's coach, and Vinicius, after allegations of racist abuse against the forward by Benfica's Gianluca Prestianni. Mourinho defended his stance from that night.
"Prestianni was my player. And that's it, there's no more discussion, 20 players could come and he was my player. Now Vini knows which side I'm on. The other day when they didn't give him a penalty, I was in the middle of the pitch fighting for him."
He added a message about how officials treat Vinicius.
"People need to learn how to behave with him, and I'm talking about referees. You can't award one player a penalty and not Vinicius, protect one and not Vinicius. They don't respect him."
He closed with a pointed note for his own player: "Celebrating a goal with your own fans is one thing, celebrating in front of the opposition's supporters is another."