Top 100 Quotes & Sayings by Gareth Thomas

There are excuses for dropping the ball or missing a tackle. But there are no excuses for not playing with a passion for your team-mates and as long as I get that response and they play well, I'll be happy.

I know that my parents sacrificed a hell of a lot to make sure that my brothers and I would have all that we needed.

This journey of education and breaking stigma around HIV is something that will have a legacy everlasting.

When you cross the whitewash, you only think about the present.

If you add children to a marriage, they bring a different dimension to the relationship. If I'd had a child and I believed it would have made my child's life better by not coming out, the chances are I wouldn't have done it. Because I think you do whatever it takes to make your child happy.

I'm a sportsman, as good and strong as you, who just happens to be gay.

There are days when I wake up and do not know who I am any more.

Other sportsmen have confided in me that they're gay. The advice I give is that coming out is great for you as a person, but that you also have to remember you're a role model. As a sportsman you take the money and the glory, but you also take the responsibility that comes with it and make sure the stories that follow are positive.

I really want to remain involved in rugby. I want to continue and have an influence on the game.

I'm not going on a crusade but I'm proud of who I am. I feel I have achieved everything I could ever possibly have hoped to achieve out of rugby and I did it being gay. I want to send a positive message to other gay people that they can do it, too.

It's not about shutting people up or proving them wrong. It's about proving to ourselves what we're about.

I've been through the first cap, the 50th, and the 100th, and I defy any player who has ever gone past all those milestones to look at each of them and say that first cap isn't the one that makes him tingle the most.

Toulouse opened my eyes as a player and as a person. I returned to Wales 10 times better for the experience. I admit that when I went there I was not life-savvy: I was a wild child who lived life instinctively. I would walk past a building and not even notice it.

If you can't give 100% to rugby then you can't do it justice.

I feel I am as fit as anybody.

I think what I want to learn more than anything... is that, I've got HIV and it's OK, like. That's what I want to learn more than anything.

In Toulouse, you immersed yourself in the culture of the place.

I don't know if my life is going to be easier because I'm out but, if it helps someone else, if it makes one young lad pick up the phone to ChildLine, then it will have been worth it.

My father always pretends to hate Christmas. But when we were children he was the first one waking us up, saying: 'Do you think Father Christmas has been yet?'

It's too easy to forget bad things. By keeping the reminders close, it's the reminder of not just who you are, but how you became what you are.

You cannot afford to take any risks where your health is concerned.

I don't take any day for granted, I work hard, I'm motivated.

I want to be a good person.

I've had toiletries explode in my bag and go all over my clothes a few times but I wouldn't let something like that ruin a holiday for me.

Someone said on social media that I was the son of Satan for being open about my sexuality. I told my mother, and she laughed and said, 'Well, what the hell does that make me?'

My brain acts bizarrely and I keep having major mood swings.

All I'm concerned about is that I'm with a good squad of players and want us to be competitive and I'm not looking for anything more.

I'm not a stereotypical gay man but I am a gay man as much as anyone else.

My parents, my family and my friends all love me and accept me for who I am and, even if the public are upset by this, I know the love of those people who mean the most to me will never change.

I was always driven by the idea that if people ever found out about who I was then the stature I created for myself within rugby would have to be as relevant as the fact I was gay. It was always the driving factor to be the strongest, the fastest, the most skilful.

I was able to come out as gay publicly because my family had accepted me. They thought nothing of it, and without them I wouldn't have been able to do it. If I didn't have them in my life I would have felt like I had no one.

You tell that to people until you are blue in the face and they struggle to believe it, but I am being totally truthful when I say that all that matters to me is Wales winning.

The rugby team is a massive part of the city and generates a real passion but there is also far more to Toulouse. I learned not only to respect the history of the club but also the area and I soon came to appreciate 'buildings and structures.

It has always been my ambition to be captain of Wales over a sustained period of time.

I am not interested in individual glory.

People say getting fit is 90% diet and 10% exercise, but that's bollocks. If you train hard you earn the right to a chocolate bar.

I don't care about the size of the crowd or other people's opinions - I just want us to perform.

In 1999, we went into the World Cup with a string of victories behind us but we could not handle the pressure and ended up letting ourselves down.

The most famous man in the world has his down days. It's life. But, for me, the rainy moments are isolated moments. I'm always at least half-full. And the rest of the time I'm smiling - all the way up to the brim.

The World Cup has not been kind to us overall.

My sport was my comfort. The routine, the camaraderie, the team... everyone's around you. After rugby you're on your own.

I was born and raised to play rugby. I have two parents who are hugely proud of my rugby achievements, but even they say that maybe it was just a platform to give me a voice to do something better, and rugby wasn't what I was all about. Something else was.

My fear of coming out wasn't about rejection. I was scared people would say: 'Why were you lying to me? If you've been lying about that what else are you lying about?' Lying is my biggest regret.

I had a lot of anger because I didn't like who I was when I was off the field. I used to relish the chance to try and hurt somebody in a legal way, and in the game of rugby you were able to do that.

It is the toughest, most macho of male sports, and with that comes an image. In many ways, it is barbaric, and I could never have come out without first establishing myself and earning respect as a player. Rugby was my passion, my whole life, and I wasn't prepared to risk losing everything I loved.

I hate driving.

I'm terrible for road rage.

Toulouse expanded my game. You were given a freedom to play and express yourself on the field. Toulouse is the biggest club in Europe, rugby's equivalent of Real Madrid. Their game has always been about offloading and running but it is also physical, the complete 'package. It was always exciting, no matter how close a game was.

My old man works in the postal service, my mum in a hospital and my brother in a factory. They're my family and when I play rugby I'm representing them. But coming out was different. More than anyone, I feared for my father. I used to be a postman myself and so I know that working environment.

I am a rugby player and first and foremost I am a man.

I'm un-self-sufficient. I can't look after myself. I really can't.

I have always said that leadership is not about one man but a group of experienced players.

It was a huge honour to be chosen by the Lions and to lead the side, but the greatest of all is to represent your country and win.

When I first started at Bridgend, I'd see the amount of work Rob Howley put in on his own after the team had all gone home. He was doing ridiculous amounts. So I started training like him. Always on my own.

When I started doing Twitter, I realised there were so many people following me who were going through the same thing I was going through.

Everything I do, I do it being myself.

There are times in my life when I've wanted never to exist. There's times you don't want to go back to.

Some people say it's sad living in a hotel, but I'd rather be living in an hotel than living in an house on my own.

When I got married to my ex-wife, Jemma, I took my vows very, very seriously. I've been brought up with good values and I don't go into anything thinking: this is just for the sake of it - it's not going to last.

If you could bottle that special feeling you sometimes get in a dressing room just before a match, you'd be a billionaire.