“I knew I became a professional when I stop paying attention to what time it was.”

To me, if you’re trying to impress a girl, get a date, they’re gonna like that more because you’re a confident guy. That’s what it comes down to.

The true competitors, though, are the ones who always play to win.

To me, football is so much about mental toughness, it’s digging deep, it’s doing whatever you need to do to help a team win and that comes in a lot of shapes and forms.

I’ve always been privileged to play for Coach Belichick, who I’ve always said is the best coach in the history of the league.

We all have experiences in our lives that change us, and we all learn from people, like my dad, but at the end of the day, it’s only us. And we’re only responsible to make ourselves happy.

It’s never come easy for me. I don’t think my mind allows me to rest ever. I have, I think, a chip on my shoulder, and some deep scars that I don’t think were healed.

I don’t think there’s a lot of carry-over from year to year. I don’t think anybody cares what you did the year before.

Everyone is dealing with something. This is life; this is not just a piece of cake.

I don’t want to wake up and be bored. That’s probably my greatest fear is to have nothing to do. What better job is there than to play quarterback for an NFL team, and certainly one that I’ve been on for a long time and had success with? I don’t plan on giving it up any time soon.

I’m not squeezing the balls. That’s not part of my process.

You put all the other stuff aside and go out and do your job, and mine is to be the best I can be for my teammates.

As an athlete, when you are on that field and the fans get really engaged and you can feel their energy and passion and true love of the game, it is absolutely a spiritual experience.

Man, wear your seat belts. That’s all I can tell everybody. You never know.

My mom was a great tennis player, and I remember being six or seven years old watching Steffi Graf and Monica Seles in Wimbledon in my house. I’ve always been a tennis fan.

With football, you can have up to 28 guys you consider starters, and if they can pick up the slack when some aren’t playing so well, you don’t have to turn those two-game losing streaks into six-game losing streaks.

I think sometimes in life the biggest challenges end up being the best things that happen in your life.

But have we ever really been lost? Or have we just not been paying attention.

There can be no settlement of a great cause without discussion, and people will not discuss a cause until their attention is drawn to it.

I always tell people, ‘Coming from such a big Mexican family when there’s a new baby every three weeks, you have to do something to get someone’s attention.’

I want it all: I want the attention and live for the glory nights.

If you’re paying attention and you’ve been a good listener, you learn every day.

It ain’t that I’m too big to listen to the rumors, It’s just that I’m too damn big to pay attention to ’em.

We need to keep ringing the bell, wake people up to get our democracy together. Farm workers are like a symbol, and it is good that people are paying attention.

I have to actively put effort into reminding myself of how far I’ve come so I do not only pay attention to how far I have yet to go.