When I was growing up, my idea of a writer was someone like Sven Hassel, that mysterious Danish author who wrote thrillers about men clambering over walls and getting tangled in barbed wire.

When I was growing up, there was a feeling in one's living room as much as in one's local gallery that a little elitism was good for the soul.

I've been asked which of the other arts novel-writing is most like, and I have come to believe it is acting. Of course, in terms of pattern it can be like music, in terms of structure it can be like painting, but the job to me is most like acting.

When you grow up by the sea, you spend a good deal of time looking at the horizon. You wonder what on Earth the waves might bring - and where the sea might deposit you - until one day you know you have lived between two places, the scene of arrival and the point of departure.

I'm focused on football and my career. No one really has to doubt that. Outside, I do other things that make me happy.

I was asked to do something and represent my country. That's a great honor. This isn't about what it could do for me but what I could do for U.S.A. Basketball.

Part of my growing up was always trying to make my parents proud and always trying to keep them happy. I think part of what held them together was my involvement in sports.

Me and my mates go free running all the time. It's not my mum's favourite sport. I've probably jumped four metres on to grass and two metres between buildings. It's nothing like you see on the Internet, with guys jumping off skyscrapers, but it's fun.