“It undoubtedly feels nice when you are being appreciated and you get complimented by girls. Who doesn’t like that? Having said that, I don’t take it as any pressure.”

The more centuries that I am able to score, the happier I will be.

The bat is not a toy, it’s a weapon. It gives me everything in life, which helps me to do everything on the field.

Remember who you are and don’t let anyone convince you otherwise.

Nothing extraordinary happens to a cricketer if you time his career – which is very short.

In the game of cricket, a hero is a person who respects the game and does not corrupt the game. The one who doesn’t or corrupts the game, they are the villain. They should be punished, and they have been punished in the past.

Self-belief and hard work will always earn you success.

I want to be relaxed in my personal life. I really don’t like to be hassled.

Real fun is in a real challenge.

I don’t really focus on these things – on what tags are given to me or what people think of me off the field – stuff like that. My main focus is always to do well on the field for the Indian cricket team. When people say good things about me off the field, I am more than happy to accept them.

People from North India are generally known to be aggressive and emotional.

In the end, it’s you who you have to answer to.

I always had a sense of discipline in me. However, there was a time when I couldn’t divide my time properly between off-field things and on-field assignments. The focus would be missing at times, and that would affect my preparation for matches. I managed to change that.

I don’t believe in signing anything and everything that comes my way. I leave it to my agency to help narrow them down for me, but I do research it myself before signing. The image of the brand and its ambassadors go hand in hand.

The first thing I look forward to when I am in Delhi is to spend some time with my family. It’s always lovely coming back here and playing in front of my own people. It’s just a special place.

I do not abuse players. I talk to myself; I abuse myself. It’s my way of letting off steam. I do it after every century; I do not do it always. I keep telling myself: ‘Improve, improve from the previous match, the previous shot. You can do it.’

I wasn’t sure of the exact mindset you should have when you go into a Test match. So I probably became too defensive when I played my first Test match. Short balls in one-day cricket, I have never thought of just defending.

Even though negativity begs for my attention, I will still choose to focus on the joy in my life.

Women have fought so long and hard for our rights and equality, and now all our attention is put on being a size 0.

Live one day at a time. Keep your attention in present time. Have no expectations. Make no judgements. And give up the need to know why things happen as they do. Give it up!

The wilderness needs your whole attention.

Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.

It takes an extraordinary amount of attention to manifest any ambition. But life intervenes – distractions and obligations pull us away from the ambition we originally had.

The center of the stage is where I am.

Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.