“I’ve had a fan who made a painting of my face with her fingers. I have put it up in my room. It was sweet and very different.”

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.

Staring into the abyss full of art – hoping for the return of a glimmer or a spark.

Pure drawing is an abstraction.

You say a new era in art is preparing; you sensed it coming; continue your studies without weakening. God will do the rest.

He found a formula for drawing comic rabbits: This formula for drawing comic rabbits paid. Till in the end he could not change the tragic habits This formula for drawing comic rabbits made.

The truth and the facts aren’t necessarily the same thing. Telling the truth is the object of all art; facts are what the unimaginative have instead of ideas.

There is more similarity in the marketing challenge of selling a precious painting by Degas and a frosted mug of root beer than you ever thought possible.

It is not enough to have a talented designer; the management must be inspired too. The creative process is very disorganised; the production process has to be very rational.

Art is the objectification of feeling.