“Irrespective of whether you have talent or not, one has to work hard. Just being talented doesn’t mean anything; you can end up wasting it before you realize.”

Pretension is a poor joke that you play on yourself. Snap out of it. Recognise your strengths, work on your weaknesses. Real achievement is liking what you see in the mirror every morning.

I wasn’t very good in academics, but I could have been if I could have studied well. I was a smart kid.

Becoming an inspiration for kids is great. I want to inspire them to do whatever they want to.

No cricket team in the world depends on one or two players. The team always plays to win.

I’ve had a fan who made a painting of my face with her fingers. I have put it up in my room. It was sweet and very different.

Probably because I’m from a middle class family, I have that nature in me that I don’t get too excited with big things.

One of us wins, all of us win. Am I right?

I do believe in God. But you won’t find me visiting temples every now and then. I believe in self-realization. Peace of mind matters a lot to me. What’s the point in doing something just for the sake of it? I’d rather do something I like doing as long as I’m being true to myself.

I don’t think there is anything wrong in earning money from the sport you love. If you work hard and get benefits from it, there is no harm. The day you feel that you are not working hard and are only looking at the benefits, that’s where the problem is.

Work never stops.

I feel only my friends and family need to know what is happening in my personal life.

Border’ was the first movie that I watched on the big screen. It always takes me back to my childhood.

As a sportsperson, the best thing is people recognising you and loving you for what you do. For me, glamour is 100 people in the hotel feeling happy to see you.

I’m not a nerd, don’t plan to be a nerd and read books – which I can’t do at all.

My priority is cricket. Everything that I get apart from it is a result of the effort on the field. Everything else follows. I am pretty aware of my priorities, and I don’t really focus on things that are not as important to me as cricket.

Unity is the vehicle, desire is the fuel.

The hardest goodbyes are the ones you never got to say.

Charity puts and end to poverty; righteous conduct to misery; discretion to ignorance; and scrutiny to fear.

Kind words and good deeds are eternal. You never know where their influence will end.

People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.

Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production.

I heard endless conversations between my parents when I was going to sleep about how we would survive, how we would continue. All of them were about trying to make me better.

Start the day with love, spend the day with love, fill the day with love and end the day with love. That is the way to God.

He is led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.