The ball gave me prestige, gave me fame, gave me riches. Thank you, my old friend.

I chose Real Madrid instead of Barcelona because I'm a winner, not a loser

No one player is as good as the sum of a team

I don't want to be idolized, I just want to play. And to do that you have to run and sweat.

Scoring goals is like making love: everyone can do it, but nobody does it like me.

Reputations do not win matches and trophies, only goals can do that

I retired at age 40 because my daughters looked at me one day and said: 'Dad, being bald and wearing shorts doesn't look good together'.

A 0-0 is like a Sunday without sun.

Count Basie was college, but Duke Ellington was graduate school.

I've never met an animal I didn't like, and I can't say the same thing about people.

Every grown-up man consists wholly of habits, although he is often unaware of it and even denies having any habits at all.

I don't know who Donald Trump has in mind given that the circle of loyalists around him, the circle of people that he genuinely trusts is very small and getting smaller all the time.

I had never feared insomnia before--like prison, wouldn't it just give you more time to read?

Many of the greatest black athletes of all time played baseball for no money and no recognition. I'm just sorry many major league fans never got to see them play, because many of them were awesome.

Sense of family is enormously important to me. In the larger sense, we're all of us family; we're all of us soulmates.

Writing never came naturally and I still have to force my hand to do it.

Shut up, Nick. (Talon) 'Shut up, Nick, heel, sit, fetch.’ Love you too, Celt. (Nick)

We'd achieve more if we chase the dream instead of the competition.