We're a little bit competitive and we want to make sure we're on the top. We're all working for the same goal as all these bands, we want to come out on top and I think we have accomplished that in a lot of ways. You want to keep improving yourselves and getting better at what you do.
The top coaches want wide strikers who cut inside. They want playmaking midfielders who can play between the lines as well as perform their defensive duties.
One of the good things about being away is to digest things and maybe learn from things and see if there are better ways to get to where you want to be.
If you look at the top midfielders in the past for England, like Lampard, Gerrard, and Scholes, they were always on the scoresheet.
If you want change, and you want things to get better across the country, there's different ways to go about it.
Both Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic are classy players, top midfielders. They play for Real Madrid and Barcelona. That tells you everything.
I don't ever want to do anything that's obvious, and I also want to find ways to do things that are extremely new and exciting and can make sense in bizarre ways. I always want things to make sense in really bizarre ways.
When you're young, you develop ways to win, and you think they will always work, but then you get to the top, competing against the other top athletes, and sometimes things don't work.
I think that if you have a single payer system and an opt-out for people who want to pay more [for better service, etc.], I think it would be better - and I think we'll eventually get there. It wouldn't be better at the top - [our current system] is the best in the world at the top. But the waste in the present system is awesome and we do get some very perverse incentives.
When you're young, you want to do everything. You want to go out and find girls; you want to have a drink - there are a lot of things you want to do. But if you want to make it to the top, there are a lot of things you can't do.
At work, you want to stand out but not in extra-funky ways. At the core, it's about dressing for girls - who are most of my fans - and you want to dress up for them. You just want to feel like you're on top of your game.
Let's put an end to this European civil war, the existence of which we don't want to admit, and stop constantly looking at whether we are better than our neighboring country at this or the other thing. We have to be open to new things, and that includes things that have been taboo until now: France still insists that the treaties cannot be changed. Germany doesn't want any financial transfers. We have to leave these old ways of thinking behind.
For better or worse, a lot of people who build things don't want to part ways. They don't have the short exit plan that a lot of the investors have.
In the last year I have gained a lot of experience because I have been playing against top players and realized what things to work on to get better. Top players basically tell you what your weaknesses are on the court.
I have respect for what other people believe. What I believe in my own life is that it's a search for how I can do things better, whether it's being a better man or a better father or finding ways for myself to improve.
I don't want things that I regret in life, and things that I have not done - and I don't want to at 80 years wake up, and tell myself: 'Oh I was on top of my shape and skills and I didn't do it.'