“I always want to win because I never want to sit out on the sidelines outside.”

I was always in the gym. People would look at me crazy because I spent so much time there. But that’s what it was about. I’m glad I did it.

How I grew up, everybody was telling me, “You can’t do this, you can’t get tattoos, you’ve got to look a certain way.” Now, I’m like, “Why?”

I love playing it, I just never thought I’d make it to college, NBA, or be standing up here today. It is a surreal feeling. So many people doubted me and motivated me.

I probably play games more than I practice.

Every memory I have from when I was a kid involves basketball.

So many people doubted me. They motivated me every single day, to be, who I am.

If I’d gone straight to the NBA, I don’t think I would have been ready as a player or a person.

You know, I don’t want to stand out too much.

I pray for you every night. You’ve taught me to feel confident in myself, believe in myself that I can do it when I didn’t think I could do it.

I can score the basketball, but I think I can pass pretty well or I can make the correct pass.

I’ve heard a few times, in three or four years, this league is going to be yours. I don’t like that. Because I think I’m established now.

I was just a big fan of tattoos always growing up, and I wanted something cool that symbolizes what I’ve been through in my life, and everything on my chest and my back is like a collage.

I’m like a chameleon. I adapt to my situation. It’s very slowed down here. I like it that way. I’m a guy that’s very reserved, quiet and shy myself.

I just want to grow spiritually with the Lord.

My acting coach I’ve got here, Richard Lawson, he’s been doing good, just telling me to calm down sometimes and just be me.

I want the younger kids, the basketball players in high school and college to hear from me and let them know that when you come to the league, this is what happens and this is how I feel as an NBA player. And it’s not all peachy keen.

The select group of people who do make realistic cinema, who do make cinema perhaps a little more acceptable to the Western audience, is a very small percentage.

I don’t want the national award… I seriously do not need any such thing. I would only want the audience to go and watch the film once and that will be more than enough for me. Once everybody should see the movie and say it is a good watch.

For me acting, comes straight from the heart. In that sense I don’t act at all. I think that to feel the character’s pain I have to be myself. Somewhere audiences see that.

I think if you’re talented and not desperate to do any film that comes your way, and are doing justice to all your roles, then you’re fine, because you can’t predict the rest. You also can’t predict the audience’s reaction.

There are people who want awards because it changes the perception of the audience. But I’m not into all that.

If you don’t come from film family, it takes time for people to register you. When you don’t come from film family, the connection with the audience takes time to build up; it happens eventually.

Fame is directly related to the kind of support you have from an audience and the love and support I have from audience is so immense and so huge, that the percentage of negativity is so small compared to that that it would be very easy for it to lose itself.

There are two kinds of films: the ones that are devoid of logic but can still hijack the audience, and those that can win them over with logic. Both kinds can succeed, and I like to work in both.