Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I don't want to pack everything into one year and then do nothing the rest of my life. I think it's important to do things bit by bit.
Nobody on this planet had a range of passing like Paul Scholes. Training every day was a pleasure just watching him. Unbelievable career.
For me there's nothing better than putting the white shirt on for England and playing for England. I'd get worried if it wasn't like that.
I don't get a lot of enjoyment out of sitting there for an hour and a half watching a game like we saw between Ireland and England last Sunday.
I thought I would break the scoring record when I got to 40 goals by the age of 27 or 28, but then Fabio Capello took over and he never picked me again.
To breed a winner, let alone at Royal Ascot, is unbelievable. I've got four children and they all love the mother. We pat it most days and she's a lovely mare.
As I've got older, I've become more intrigued about formations, tactics, I listen a lot more to the manager's team talk; as a kid, if I'm honest, I never listened.
If you look at anyone at the top of their profession, there has to be something a little bit different. You have to be driven, cold, hard and mentally tough as iron.
Fortunately I am a mentally strong person and believe I will learn from the experience and continue to improve as a player and person because of it. (on breaking his leg)
I want to be a top-flight football player, so I lead the life that enables me to be that type of player. I prefer to be seen in a decent light rather than an indecent one.
If you're a goal scorer, you have to have a certain attitude. I'm very serious. My missus thinks I'm a bit weird. I'm cold, I don't have many emotions. It's very rare I cry.
Horses will never be my career. It's just a big passion of mine, and one that will always be there in the background, but football is my main passion and everyone knows that.
I hate to admit this but I don't even know how to make a cup of tea or coffee. I can boil a kettle for a pot noodle and I've been known to warm up some food in the microwave.
I was born to score goals, I feel. How I score them - how I get the ball into the back of the net - might have changed. The actual ability of what I was born to do will never leave me.
Best players I played with? Striker wise, well, I had a great record with Emile Heskey - he would be one of my favourite partnerships because we were so different and worked together so well.
If you look at football over the last 50 years there has been a gradual decrease in goals, you don't see too many 10-nils these days, but two, three or four goals per game is a good spectacle.
I joined Twitter and you read a lot of the comments. You're biting your lip and you want to reply but you know a headline will be made from it and you don't want to give people the satisfaction.
Clubs don't like their players going off to play international matches and you can see a scenario where they eventually start to make it more difficult for international sides to call up players.
[Wayne Rooney] best tournament was the 2004 European Championships, when he played alongside me and made such a big impact, but it hasn't happened for him at the World Cup for one reason or another.
I was proper, proper fast at one point, and obviously I'm not now, so I've lost certain things, but when I was that fast I didn't need to do certain other things in a game. It was such a potent weapon.
I've got no hamstring in the middle. I'm basically running on two hamstrings on my right leg and three on the other. That injury has probably changed my whole career. I've been compromised from the age of 19.
I would like to think that if I stop playing in three, four, five years time, whatever it may be, that I would still be involved in football and still have that as my profession. It is my passion and what I know.
I remember running around the park as a kid and pretending, shouting out 'Michael Owen in the cup final. He scores!' To actually fulfil that dream when you're older and score two goals made it just a magical day.
I'm confident in my own ability. If that wasn't the case you might as well pack it in now. If you think too much, you start doubting yourself, doubting your quality, so you have to train yourself in a certain way.
Give me a great Champions League game or an exciting Premier League game ahead of an international match and I'd love that to reverse. A lot of people have lost interest in England games, it is quite hard to watch.
I think nowadays Manchester United is more competitive than it's ever been. Obviously, over the last one or two decades, they've always had one challenger or two challengers maybe, whether it be Arsenal or Chelsea.
A lot of people have lost interest in watching England play. To get motivated to watch international football, you need your country to be having some form of success and England haven't had any for a long time now.
The way I look at myself, the biggest achievement in my eyes - forget winning trophies or scoring in World Cups - is that I'm still at a top club playing at a really high standard having been almost two different players.
If I'd still been in one piece from the World Cup and gone through my career, what type of player would I have been? No doubt about it, if I hadn't had as many injuries I would have been the all-time leading scorer for England.
You're obviously conscious of being brash or big-headed but I always knew I was going to be a footballer when I was seven or eight. I didn't just think I wanted to be one, I knew I was going to be one. Nothing ever surprised me really.
Scholesy was a genius, absolute genius. He was a center-forward's dream, you could make a run and he'd put the ball perfectly in your path. Any footballer you ask will always tell you that Scholesy was one of the best players they've ever played with.
I loved [Real Madrid]. It was a real experience, playing with a great team. One of the first questions I'm often asked is 'What was Madrid like?' It's got that mystique about it. It's a magical place and a magical team, and everything about it is great.
Game by game is how I judge myself. At the end of the season, yeah, I do look back and think about how many games I've been available for, how many goals I've scored, how I've contributed. But that's what the summer's for. For now, you just look to the next one.
When you're a kid you just think about where you are going to be to put yourself in a position for the next scoring chance. But as you develop, you start to do things that may not catch the eye of the normal football watcher, the dropping back, the closing down.
If you look at anyone at the top of their profession, there has to be something a little bit different. Some of the top musicians are quirky aren't they, to say the least. You have to be driven, cold, hard and mentally tough as iron. My missus thinks I'm a bit weird.
The bottom line is that I wanted to come back and play in the Premier League again and wake up on Saturday morning and really fancy getting out there and playing in front of this fantastic support, scoring goals and enjoying football. (on returning to the premiership)
There are pitfalls in World Cups, there are players who can win penalties and players who get the slightest touch and go down holding their face or whatever and get someone sent off. There are all these little things and you're hoping that you're not on the wrong end of it.
I've always been a player that likes to get round the back and get crosses in for other people. When I first burst on to the scene some people only saw the goals I was scoring. More recently they've taken notice of the goals I've set up. It is nice to be recognized for that.
I'd love to go and I'd love to play for my country and go to a World Cup again. I've got to accept I'm not in the current squad and just think, 'If I get it, it's a bonus and I'll give it everything.' But it's hard to do when you've been thinking a different way all your life.
While the World Cup is great every four years, I think people struggle to get themselves excited about qualifiers against the smaller nations. It will take some good performances from the national team to get the feel-good factor back, as far as the England team goes at least.
You learn to understand it, but if you step back, you do think it is either strange or unfair. But I know that if you don't score, play well or win, you are wrong to have a helicopter and fly home each week to see your kids. You are wrong to have a business outside of football.
The difference with football is you're out on the pitch, you feel as though you can do something about it, or score a goal. But when that horse goes down to post as an owner you have no involvement whatsoever. It's a lonely old place in the stand. It's just down to man and beast.
[Wayne Rooney] has to be viewed as a great England striker if he breaks Sir Bobby Charlton's record. Scoring goals at international level is much more difficult than it was a few years back because even the lesser teams are well organised and don't concede too many goals these days.
I think in terms of best players, I would have to say Ronaldo, the real Ronaldo, the Brazilian one. I was fortunate enough to have a year with him at Real Madrid. He was at the end of his career and was probably half the player he was. But, in his prime, he was quite simply astonishing.
I think England are probably not as streetwise as plenty of other teams. The other top teams know how to keep a victory or do certain things to hang on to leads or get back in games. They're a lot more streetwise than us. I think as a nation we are very honest, we try to win the right way.
If you have any setback in your life, like not being in the England squad was for me - any setback, like losing a family member - everyone handles it in different ways. When I first wasn't included I was numb. I'd been the main England striker for years and years. It was really disappointing.
I think the greatest Real Madrid player of all time is Cristiano Ronaldo followed by Ferenc Puskas. Ronaldo equalled Puskas’ great record of 242 goals in fewer games. He was also the fastest Real Madrid player to score 100 goals and holds the record for most goals scored for Madrid in a season.
I don't set myself targets. Last season I scored hat-trick against Wolfsburg and three days later, that was forgotten, you're about to be judged again. When you've done well, you don't want another game, you just want to feel great. When you've done badly, you can't wait for another chance to come.
My kids are one, three, five and eight, and we are all horsey. The kids have got their ponies and can ride. Our foundation mare is special to our hearts. She was one of my first ever horses. She was my first ever winner at Chester, which is also special, and she's just the apple of our eyes, really.