My mom told me as a youngster I was always intellectual, like as far as being able to adapt fast and quick. But I had a fun childhood, went to regular school.
People always ask me how I can hit the ball so far, and I say, 'I just swing.' It's the coaches who first told me I had good bat speed. I was just swinging, and I guess it was fast. I'm pretty fast at everything.
My mom sent me to regular high school because she wanted me to have that experience and not say that I missed out, but I didn't like it at all. I'm more comfortable in the world that I'm in, I grew up in it so when I get around normal kids in regular high school I don't know what to do. I feel more secure in an adult environment.
I had a pretty regular childhood, with a rad mum who taught me to love reading and thinking and laughing, and (as far as I was concerned) a regular dad who drove trucks for a living and did radio interviews on weekends and got stopped in the street a lot when we went out.
I always felt that I had a childhood. I went to regular school whenever I wasn't working. At one point, I wanted to be a marine biologist.
The American people, I think, are tired of being told. They're tired of being told this is as good as it gets. They're tired of being told, like Ronald Reagan used to say, that little intellectual elite in a far distant capital can plan our lives better for us than we can plan them for ourselves.
I was always pushed to do that much more, and in the long run that made me more of an MMA fighter. My mom always told me that if I let it go to the judges, I'd lost. There was no way I was going to win a decision, so I had to find ways to finish the fight fast.
When I moved from Independiente to Atletico Madrid, I was only 18, and I found it hard to adapt. But what surprised me most about moving to England was how fast the game was. I like it, but it is so quick.
It's so fun because Jason [Mantzoukas]'s one of the smartest people I've met in comedy. So unbelievably fast comedically - so he's quick with whatever, but it's fun to watch someone be so quick and so stupid simultaneously.
I try to shield my children as far as possible from the public glare. I want them to have a normal childhood like we had. We went to school by the school bus, had school food... There was no special treatment given to us. The same applies to my children as well.
But when I realized it was actually going to be this portrait of the artist, birth to death, I had to then discover who Margaret as a young woman would be. I had to find the different voices for her throughout her life. I had a lot of fun discovering that. I had a lot of fun writing the childhood sections. By imagining her childhood, I was able to come up with this voice that matures as she gets older.
As a quick, tricky player, I've been told that I don't go down enough because I've always tried to stay on my feet or I don't win clever fouls around the box. But when you are quick, the fastest way to be stopped is by being fouled so it happens to me a lot, even if I don't always maximise the opportunity.
I think that's why I was able to go so far in my life and career - because my mom always supported me, even when I had the craziest ideas ever.
My mom always told me if I love what I'm doing, and I'm having fun, then just continue to do it. But if it's not fun for me anymore, and I'm miserable, then I'm going to go back to Texas and quit it all, to be honest.
My mom always told me if I love what I'm doing and I'm having fun then just continue to do it. But if it's not fun for me anymore and I'm miserable, then I'm going to go back to Texas and quit it all, to be honest.
My mum always had fun on shoots, but afterwards, she would pick us up from school and make dinner. I had a pretty normal childhood.
My mom never had nothing that she could call her own. So growing up and being able to do something different with basketball and be a special player, that was something that I've always had in my mind, I've always wanted to do. And just having the opportunity to do it for my mom is an incredible experience.