I know what I want to do and there's no point giving my secrets away.

Looking for perfection is the only way to motivate yourself.

The most important thing, the biggest love of my life, is my snooker. Ive never been so emotionally ingrained in something - in a person, an object, anything - as I have in snooker.

The relentless pursuit of perfection has been my problem over the years. It's maybe held me back.

My dad's method in his madness was to try every sport and then observe what I liked. I played football, tennis, golf, cricket but I loved my snooker.

I've been semi-successful. I've done all right but I'm not the player I was. Who do I think will win the world championship? John Higgins. Have I been good for snooker? I don't know.

Today I got so annoyed with myself that I lost my patience and walked away from a game that, with hindsight, I should have continued [on quitting a game early on against Hendry]

It's not an irrational decision, I've been thinking about this for quite a while and maybe it'll be good for me [on his career break

Running clears my mind, and gives me a reason to get out of bed in the morning.

I thought 'How can I stop playing or give myself an excuse to stop playing? So I snapped my cue on Friday. It was quite fun doing it. It's gone.

I do entertain a lot of negative thoughts and I haven't got any self-belief. But I haven't done bad for someone without any self-belief.

Despair and Genius are too oft connected

Jan had always been a good pianist, and now he was the finest in the world.

You were born to be amazing.

Even as a stage performer, I have my garb which is leather jackets and black jeans to make me feel a certain way. The wardrobe is really important to feeling the character you're playing.

Conceit is an insuperable obstacle to all progress. On the other hand, it is of little use to take criticism in a slavish spirit and to act on it without understanding it.

If our pain doesn't destroy us, it just might transform us into truly human beings at last.

One thought that occurs to me is that men will continue to withdraw from nature in order to create an environment that will suit them better.

Give life meaning through your commitments.

The fatal flaw of human wisdom is that it promises that you can change your relationships without needing to change yourself.

It was such a depressing time. I didn't look very depressed, maybe, but it was really dire. I made a conscious decision not to stop, but it could have gone the other way.