There was interest from clubs in Italy and England, I believe. But I've never been attracted by the way they play in Italy. Staying in Spain was always my preference.

I have a fantastic wife, and not only in terms of external beauty. Her priority and mine is our children. That is our choice.

To play for Barcelona, means to have an opportunity for a brilliant career. But to reach the top of it, you have to play for Real Madrid.

The mistake is to imagine that perfection is possible when the very idea is unthinkable.

If the most important thing for your project is to put on a circus, then you have less chance of winning things.

As a professional football player, I have known perfectly well from the day I started playing that every day I have to fight for my place.

I really did not think much about the size of the transfer fee when I left Barcelona because it was all down to market forces, not me.

In football, day in day out, you always have to show your worth.

I'm star-struck when I see Paul Scholes because you never see him. On the pitch you can't catch him. Off the pitch he disappears.

There are some things Ronaldo can do with a football that make me touch my head and wonder how on earth he did it.

I think he [Raul] is the greatest player to have ever played the game. He walks on the turf and astounds. It is utterly amazing.

Perhaps it takes courage to raise children..

The ordinary man looking at a mountain is like an illiterate person confronted with a Greek manuscript.

The loudest sound on earth, she thought, is a man with nothing to do.

First drafts are for learning what your story is about.

The fact that he relies on facts - says things that are not factual - are going to undermine his campaign.

To avoid each other, their eyes had developed an amazing mobility with all the cunning of enemies fearful of meeting each other head on.

The man is a common murderer. A common murderer, possible, but a very uncommon cook.

Everything looks true written down. What you read in National Enquirer and News Of The World looks true written down.

The last time I saw that crooked stupid smile on your face, I got-a-so mad, but then I realized...that crooked stupid smile is there all the time.

Natural villains are hard to come by, what with all the shrinks and social-scientist types threatening to understand everybody into the ground.