Obviously when you grow up in the area you love playing on the street, and to go from playing on the street with my mates to playing at Upton Park is a bit surreal, and 15 years on to still be in the heart of the West Ham midfield is quite good going!
When you're playing a superhero, you're almost playing two different people. I separate when I'm playing Jefferson Pierce and the days when I'm playing Black Lightning.
For a 20 year old the gap from Holland to England is massive. That's a fact. Not all players are able to settle in directly from day one. I remember even Van Persie needed two, three years but he became Van Persie.
The first several years I was an actor, I sort of eked out a living playing thugs almost exclusively until 'Robocop.'
High school and college were my punk, formative years. I was playing hardcore, learning to be a musician. In bands, you tour, but you're paid nothing; you're playing to 50 people in a basement, sleeping in a van, and you love it.
When we signed our deal in 1974, we'd already been together for six years. When they lowered the drinking age in Ontario in 1971 to 18 years, we went from playing two or three high schools in a month to playing clubs two or three times a week.
We spent most of our life almost like street rats just running around the street until we were ten years old.
Since I was two or three years old, I remember always being with the ball. I would see kids playing on the street, and would join them.
I grew up playing in the streets. We played two-hand touch from street pole to street pole. That's how I learned the game.
It may be a point of great pride to have a Van Gogh on the living room wall, but the prospects of having Van Gogh himself in the living room would put a great many devoted art lovers to rout.
I owe a lot to playing on the street. And what was even better than playing on the street was playing football with my friends in the local graveyard. It was fantastic. We forgot what the time was and didn't even go home for our meals.
I just had this feeling that, if I were to get into a fight, somehow I would have the ability to fight back, just based on playing 'Street Fighter' for so many years of my life. It's almost like I actually learned martial arts.
I do remember being a kid and hearing Van Halen. My dad was always playing Van Halen in the car.
I made the best choice coming to PSG, and after almost two years I have no doubts about it. I've been very well received, I'm playing and wearing the jersey of a side that can win it all.
I was bit by a dog when I was two years old, and it almost mauled my face. It almost killed and/or blinded me. I was this close to dying at two, which is terrible. I survived it, and there was no head trauma or anything like that. Honestly, it was a miracle.
To me, the secret of Eddie Van Halen was Alex Van Halen, because the way Alex played was so loose and the way the two of them locked together... Those two are connected so thoroughly they might as well be one person.