Top 38 Quotes & Sayings by Andre Gray

The main reason I got released from Shrewsbury in the first place was for what I was doing off the pitch.

I wasn't putting my all into it and I was still managing to score goals, and that gave me something to dream about, and something to work hard for. So I ended up going to the gym on my days off, trying to be a step ahead of everyone. Then we played Luton and I did OK and they came in for me.

It's hard to prove your point to the public when they don't know who you are. Everyone is outside looking in, but I'm sure people that actually know me, know what I'm about.

It's hard to see yourself in the Premier League when you are in the Conference because the jump is so high. When I was there nobody had done it.

I always felt like I needed to be backed up in a corner to push myself.

I've learned from my mistakes and wrongdoings.

When I was at Hinckley I was on £200 a week. I was flying around getting myself into trouble here and there. It was a learning curve, relying on money that wasn't coming and having to survive.

I want to score 15-20 goals a season in the Premier League. I want to be up there doing that. I know that I can do that.

The civil rights movement is something I've looked into a lot. When I was about 23, I started reading up on it all and watching TV programmes.

I know I can score goals, regardless of anything else that might be my weaknesses, I know I can score goals.

My mum brought me up but it's hard for a woman to try to teach a son man things, so I've had to practically raise myself.

When I was at Hinckley it was just a case of taking it one step at a time - try to get into the Conference, then League Two and so on.

My family know me. They see who I am and how I've come out of the situation I've been in. And I'm still with them, they know me on a day-to-day basis.

Us, as footballers, are in a very privileged position.

It's difficult for my mum because she doesn't know half of the things that happened. She might think the sun shines out of me. That's the case with a lot of parents and their children - they don't really know what goes on when they leave the house.

Racism has been in football since football started, it's never going away, it's never got better. It's just noticed more because everything is on TV, everything is magnified.

I went to Zanzibar on holiday and there was a lot there about civil rights and there was a museum, where there are old slave chambers. It was horrible to go to and they've still got the chains there. It opens your eyes a lot.

In terms of school, we never got taught anything about black history. Growing up, a lot of things are hidden away from you.

I believe I can be a Premier League player.

I was in clubs with the wrong crowd who were still in bad trouble with other people. But sometimes it's hard when they're your friends to get away from it.

I am a role model now, young people see what I am at present. People look up to me now I am playing for Burnley and it is frustrating that what happened in the past gets brought up to look like it is the present.

I just want to keep my head down and do the right things on and off the pitch.

Before, if I'm in the wrong situation I tended to fight back and react in a way I know I shouldn't. If I feel backed into a corner or threatened, I will defend myself. Obviously it's wrong.

At first I didn't take football too seriously and then I realised what I wanted to do. I was seeing players get moves; a good friend went from Ilkeston to Luton and that made me see what was possible.

I didn't have time to worry about the great big scar on my face, I just had to be relieved I hadn't been stabbed in the eye or the neck. I had to accept what had happened and move on and football helped me to do that.

When I go to America, I'm fortunate enough to stay in the nicer areas but the last time I went there - to New York last October, November - I went and explored. I went to the rough areas - to Brooklyn, Harlem, the Bronx; I walked around and you see it first-hand, what life is like out there.

I'm not just gonna get a random rapper tattooed on me.

I made the step up from the Conference North to the Conference Premier. The difference in standard is quite big in those two leagues.

If people want to see me as the bad boy because one of my friends has gone to jail, then that's what they're going to think, but they haven't a clue about my life and what I've had to deal with growing up and the things I've been around.

I've got to a point where I've done everything that I set out to do and more. I'm living my dream. It's just about now, finding that other level to go push for. That's what I've been doing and that's what I want to do.

I try not to think about where I would be now if I had stayed in Wolverhampton. Jail. That's the way I would have seen it. It was just part and parcel of where I grew up and the lifestyle I was in.

I'm a private person. People just see me as the bad boy, and if that's how they want to perceive me, then so be it - but they don't know who I am.

The Brexit thing says it all. It's all to do with immigration and the people that have voted to leave the EU... for me, it's because of racism, because they don't want people coming into our country.

I can't even count how many times I've been pulled over. I can't count how many times I've gone to a club and not got in, how many times a security guard has followed me round a shop. I can't count how many times that somebody has asked me if I'm a footballer because I've come out of a nice car.

The opportunities for black cultures need to change and we need to get more culture in higher positions in football, because I think the racism that happens on football fields hasn't been addressed properly and it's been brushed under the carpet.

I don't think a lot of people understand the situations I've been involved in and the way I grew up. I took myself away from it and made something out of a bad situation.

All kids of all races need to understand, not just about black history but their own history. It's something that will help you in the future, just in terms of moving on in life, understanding the things your ancestors had to go through.

I'll never forget where I came from or who my friends are. But I know there is a time and a place to be with them. That's not being with 20 or 30 people in a nightclub or walking around the streets.