“Every quarterback can throw a ball; every running back can run; every receiver is fast; but that mental toughness that you talk about translates into competitiveness.”

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.

Football is unconditional love.

Fortunately for a quarterback, you can play for a long time because you don’t get hit very often.

I think it’s a feeling like I’ve got it all figured out. There’s nothing that can shock me anymore. There’s nothing I haven’t anticipated; so at that point, there is a calmness.

I think you can just go out and try to be the best you can be, deal with people with respect, with honesty, with integrity, have a high moral standard. I’ve always really tried to exemplify that as an athlete. I’ll continue to try to do that.

I’m not a person who defends myself very often. I kind of let my actions speak for me.

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

I don’t follow other players or the tournaments they play. I have my own schedule and do my own thing. I never really think, ‘Oh, I want to be or play like so-and-so.’ I just like being myself.

There is a charm in making a stew, to the unaccustomed cook, from the excitement of wondering what the result will be, and whether any flavour save that of onions will survive the competition in the mixture.

It’s really me vs me. Everything else is just unwarranted noise.

The competition is tough at the international level. There are very good players.

If I test the car for a year I can be quite competitive the next season.

It is with roses and locomotives that my poems are competing.

The great fights with your strongest rivals are always the biggest motivation. When you win easily it’s not the same taste.

To win the Championship in the first year will be hard. We need time to become competitive and win races.