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My job is to go on the pitch and put my best foot forward.
I think the stereotype about footballers being badly dressed is unfair.
At Chelsea, there's more focus on team shape, a lot of work on tactics.
As a young player, I think it's important to have people who talk to you.
I always pray. I'm quite religious. I've had the beads since I can remember.
In fashion, you express yourself however you want. You express your personality.
People will want to say this or that about you, but take it with a pinch of salt.
I can only show these people what I'm capable of when God allows me to be on the pitch.
I watch the goals to get me in the mood and to give myself a vision of how I want the game to go.
I'm a very humble and normal person, and I just go out there and do the job the best that I can do it.
I think Kanye West is - people don't give him the credit he deserves for what he has brought to our generation.
There is always something new. But to be honest, if I was to score a goal in a World Cup, I don't know what I would do.
I feel like, in football, you always have to prove yourself as well. The past is in the past. Last season was last season.
It's important to be courteous; it has to be. I was raised very well by my parents, so it's about being polite and courteous.
Every man needs a good pair of jeans. It's the ultimate wardrobe staple because most of us wear them more than anything else.
My dad's view about coaching was that you have to express yourself. When I was young at academies, I wasn't allowed to do that.
I loved drama class at school. I never took it seriously, as I was playing football. But maybe when I retire, I'll have a dabble.
With grooming, less is more. I like to smell good, so will use a fragrance like Boss Bottled. I don't overdo it, but I moisturise daily, too.
I like to feel comfortable in what I'm wearing, so I do wear a lot of sportswear. Not football training stuff, but mostly casual tracksuits and T-shirts.
I'm an open book. I speak to people all the time and generally have a smile on my face. I'm true to who I am, so you can never always smile and be happy.
When Liverpool came in, it was one of those situations that I just wanted to get up the M6 as quick as possible, sign on the dotted line, and get to work.
Some players respond to shouting; some don't. Everyone is different, and that is one of a manager's strengths to understand that some don't respond to that.
Going away to West Brom, I learned, too. You learn things about football. You learn about yourself. You get to assess the situation from the outside, looking in.
Grooming in football is quite big. I'm somebody that brings my Boss Bottled Unlimited to training or in my washbag, and I've put a few of my teammates onto that.
I remember when I was at Chelsea, and Ancellotti used to say, 'Watch a DVD of Inzaghi' - movement in terms of runs in behind and what makes strikers score goals.
I have always been confident in my abilities, always had my faith in God, always expressed myself, but when you are a young player, sometimes you get misunderstood.
There is an expectation that if you do sport, any sport, you should never have a life outside that. People expect you to just train, play, train. But that's not me.
I think it's important to play. I don't think the manager needs to give you a confidence booster and say, 'You're my main man; you're the best.' Everyone wants to play.
I have total faith in my abilities, total faith in what I can do on the pitch, and I just have to focus on that, on my game, and help the team be successful, and I have no worries.
A lot of players are straight-faced and serious; some are the opposite. It's like that until about 10 minutes before kick-off and I am in the zone. Then there is no more joking about.
My mum, she loves a bargain hunt. You can't buy her anything expensive. I remember I bought her a diamond bracelet for her birthday. I was being a nice son! She told me to take it back.
I treat everyone with the same respect they treat me with. Just because I earn more money doesn't make me more special than them or give me the right to talk to them in a certain manner.
Football's no different from any other workplace. If you're not doing the job you think you're capable of, it's frustrating. And I'm aiming for the stars. I'm not content with being in the shadows.
Everybody judges a book by its cover. I can look at 50 books and say every one of those books is bad. Then you read one, and you can say, 'This book is amazing.' That's the same with meeting people.
As a footballer, you're stuck in a uniform - either in team kit or a team suit. I don't really get to show my personality in my job, so style is a chance to show people part of me they don't often see.
I'm drawn to black clothes. I say I'm inspired by the wrestler The Undertaker because there's something about wearing black that makes me feel confident and classy. It isn't to try and make me look slim!
In the past, I'd felt I didn't want to try something because I might get shot down for it. I'd tried it with England, and the goalkeeper - I think it was against Poland - saved it. This time, it came off.
My parents were very protective of me. Hockley had some crime, so my mum didn't want me out there, and my dad was the same. I would have to be in at a certain time, as there was a lot of violence surrounding our area.
It's easy to become complacent when you are earning decent money as a young player. It's important to understand that there is a lot to achieve, and there is a long way to go before you are where you actually want to be.
At the World Cup, I carried my mum's Caribbean sauce around with me. She makes her own, and I brought it to Brazil - I needed to have it there. We're very down-to-earth; it's the nature of my family. We came from nothing.
For me, that was a defining moment in my career, being at Chelsea, going through what has made me become a man in terms of my career. Even playing on the right wing helped my right foot, making me use it more, making me improve.
As a youngster, that's how it was: you tried to express yourself out on the pitch as much as you can. Maybe I stopped trying things when I got into the first team, but now I'm more comfortable and doing things off the cuff again.
Inzaghi was one that I really liked to watch because he was completely different to how I played, but he gave me something I didn't have and actually helped me out a lot. Probably a lot of the goals I score now have come from him.
I don't really like to pay attention too much to what is being said about me, only because the people closest to me - my parents, family, and friends - know me best. So I feel like their opinions mean more to me than anyone else's.
When you're on the inside, there's no other perspective but what you see on the inside. When you're on the outside, you get to look at things a little differently: how you can help, how you can fit in, how you can do certain things differently.
They wanted to play me central midfield when I was at Aston Villa, so that's why we left. Things were going good at Coventry, but then scouts from Manchester United and different clubs around England were watching me, and I don't think Coventry liked that.
For me, personally, I think the serious gamers - the guys who know the levels - play Xbox, and people who are just good at the game play PS3. I play PS3 because I'm not a serious, serious gamer like that. But when I play the Xbox, the standard is so much higher.
People think I got loads of money at City and then left for Chelsea to chase more money. I didn't get that money. I moved to Chelsea because they made promises to me. They told me I would get opportunities, I would play and that they believed in me as a young player.
If I score a goal in training, it feels great. But in a stadium, especially Anfield, or even when you score away and the fans are silent, it's just amazing. You are just in the moment. There are times when I've scored, and I can't even remember what happened. It's so good.
Everyone is entitled to their opinions, and I feel like everyone judges people: regardless of whether they know someone or not, they have an opinion based on the persona of the person. I guess you can only have a real opinion of who they are as a person once you meet someone.