The battle against cancer has made me strong. It's like winning a war! When I was diagnosed, I was told by doctors my kidney, liver and other organs could fail. It was tough. I didn't know if I could save my life. But I was positive, and because of that, the doctor told me that I would be a man who would never have cancer.
I'd never heard of colon cancer. Baseball wasn't even important to me. I have a wife and two girls. That's what was important. The doctors told me and all I could say was, 'When are we going to get this thing out?'
I was told I could play at the top long before I realised I could. A few people told me that. I've always had a 'name,' and I don't know how I got it, but I was blessed with people in the right situations saying good things about me.
My faith is so strong that I believe that God made me 5-11 for a reason. For all the kids that have been told, no, that they can't do it, or all the kids that will be told no.
I have been told too much - to talk less, to keep my opinions to myself, to not sound intelligent - all this was told to me so that I could fit in. But I never thought I fit in anyway. So if you don't fit in, at least stand out.
I'm not that ambitious chick. I'm not chasing a cover of a magazine or an award. I've just never been that girl. I've always been very content with whatever God blessed me with and he's already blessed me with a lot.
The more people told me that, you know, wow, you should be so blessed. Dont you feel blessed? And you have all this - mansion and all these beautiful things. And I said, you know - the more they told me that, the more depressed I got.
Nothing mattered much to me for a time there, after you told me you could never love me, Anne. There was nobody else -- there never could be anybody else for me but you. I've loved you ever since that day you broke your slate over my head in school.
The more people told me that, you know, wow, you should be so blessed. Don't you feel blessed? And you have all this - mansion and all these beautiful things. And I said, you know - the more they told me that, the more depressed I got.
My working poor parents told me that I could do better. They taught me that I was as good as anybody else. And it never occurred to them to tell me that I could just rest comfortably and wait for good old Uncle Sugar to feed me, lead me and then bleed me.
When Brian told me he grew up in New Mexico, I told him I thought it is cool that people from other countries play football. He corrected me on my geography and agreed to sit down with me anyway.
My parents always told me I could do anything, but never told me how long it would take
I got told I wasn't good enough and that I could never make it. And then Aerie told me I was beautiful because I was me.
God has really blessed me. He could've allowed me to keep playing, but instead he saved my life.
When I was told they wanted the show to be about doctors, I was a bit reluctant to sign on, you know? I thought, why have a show about doctors when we could have a show about the real heroes, you know, like me?
I never learned how to make music, play an instrument, then a lot of people told me things like "you will never succeed" and "it's just a dream" - anyway it made me much trouble, but in a way it made me work hard to become more than a dream.