“No matter how big and strong you are even Tyson said he was scared as hell walking to the ring. Everyone feels the pressure.”

From the neck up is where you win or lose the battle. It’s the art of war. You have to lock yourself in and strategise your mindset. That’s why boxers go to training camps: to shut down the noise and really zone in.

I don’t have a preferred religion – I’d have to do research. I was born a Christian, but as I’ve grown into my own man, I don’t attach myself to a religion – 100 per cent, I have faith. Then it’s locking into what suits me.

In boxing, it is about the obsession of getting the most from yourself: wanting to dominate the world like a hungry young lion.

Just set yourself a goal and try and stick to it. Because you’ll always end up better than where you started.

Prayer is a method practised from ancient days, so it’s very important for us to maintain a spiritual connection, something that people, gladiators would do years ago, so we’re just maintaining that routine.

This is boxing, not tennis. Everyone likes a bit of rivalry, it makes for a good fight.

You’re confident, you’re going to the ring to fight, but there’s always that little thing where you’re thinking, ‘God.’ You’re nervous. But you have to embrace it and enjoy it.

The belt doesn’t represent me; it’s how you deal with people, how you represent yourself as a champion. The belt is a sign of a champion, but what makes a champion is the things I have just said.

I don’t have a strict diet; I keep it simple. I try to eat fish, meat, veg and carbs – potatoes and rice – but I’ll try and pack it in because as I’m burning so much energy. I have to see food as an energy source.

I am nice, yeah. I’m cool. But I’m no push-over. And if someone gets one over on me, they’ve done it when my eyes were closed, and it doesn’t happen twice.

There’s this idea that because I’m a heavyweight, I’m not supposed to be in condition, that I should take advantage of the fact that I can eat. But I train and eat well, and it shows when I step on the scales.

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

There’s so much pressure on becoming the next Muhammad Ali or Mike Tyson, and if you don’t achieve that in boxing, you’re nothing.

Boxing is the embodiment of who I am, but beyond that, this is a journey of the self, and my obsession to get the most from this short life.

I’ll get seven hours sleep a night, but after breakfast, I’ll have an hour just resting, to recover. In Spain they all have siestas, even businessmen.

Don’t worry about the title. Worry about what you’ve got to do today, tomorrow, the next day, and that title will be waiting for you.

What is pertinent is the calmness of beauty, its sense of restraint. It is as though the land knows of its own beauty, its own greatness, and feels no need to shout it.

But I wondered, how would I feel about killing someone? Now I know. It’s no big deal.

There are plenty of good Indian writers in English, and none of us feel we are carrying the burden of being a poster boy.

I often feel newspapers are just filling up space. Of course, I also know people who write really long books.

I feel that at any stage of my literary career it could have been said that the last book contained all the others.

I drink to feel I smoke to breathe Just look what love has done to me.

I have the feeling of this completely alternative person I should have become. There was another life that I might have had, but I’m having this one.

When you listen, the benefit is two fold: You receive the necessary information, and you make the other person feel important.