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.

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

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.

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.

atheists are the most faithful people I ever met

At certain rare moments, a library is a kind of mind.

When God wants to do an impossible task, he takes an impossible man, and he crushes him.

Even truthfulness is but one means to knowledge, a ladder--but not the ladder.

It's an interesting thing when you discover something about yourself. To go: 'Wow, I'm not the person I thought I was. I'm in the middle of something and I can't actually deal with it.'

Being right wasn't nearly as important as doing right.

I don't think there's anything wrong with sitting down with people as long as you understand that there are needs to be met and purposes to be served.

With each book, in each place, I have to keep an ongoing map as I write because otherwise I don't know where I am.

Your life is short, your duties many, your assistance great, and your reward sure; therefore faint not, hold on and hold up, in ways of well-doing, and heaven shall make amends for all

I mean, I haven't been completely lacking in some enjoyment of Chuck Berry or Buddy Holly. But I just didn't pay attention to that period of music, obviously.