To me it was never about what I accomplished on the football field, it was about the way I played the game.
Nobody was ever going to tell me that I didn't belong on a football field. And nobody was ever going to tell me that I couldn't be great.
My career only took off because of one football game. I thought it was funny. 'Playboy' called and offered me a cover just like that. I turned them down initially, because I was nervous about it and my boyfriend at the time didn't want me to do it, but they kept coming back, so I eventually said yes.
I wasn't interested in going to the school dances. I wasn't interested in going to the football games. What I wanted was to be in my room painting my walls and doing weird stuff. That's what I wanted and I got to do what I wanted, so that, to me, is my high school experience.
I don't think people can watch University of Texas basketball or football games with me - really, anything Texas is playing - without wanting to punch me in the face. I'm as big a Longhorn fan as you'll find.
Goals can help lift me to be one of the best two or three in the world, most definitely. You score the goal that wins the football match five, six, seven times a season: you are one of the best in the world. And that's what I need to do. I need to keep being consistent.
When I was at drama school, I was totally broke, and a lot of my mates had jobs and were financially very good to me, so if, for example, I take them away on a trip to a football match in Europe, it means that I can pay them back a bit.
What annoys me most is it is so easy to focus on negatives all the time. All you hear is a lot of people - whether it is industry leaders or politicians - complaining about everything. I don't deny things are not always perfect, but the stage it gets is huge compared with the simple things that make people happy, like winning a football match.
I've played in a few Champions League matches and got into quarter-finals - sometimes unluckily knocked out - but you have to prepare like any other football match: you have to play the game, not the occasion. That's been instilled in me since I was a kid.
It's not like I played my first football match in England. For me, football is pretty much the same everywhere; the ball is round, but maybe tactically, things are different than at other clubs I've played for.
My brother took me to my first football match when I was five, and I quickly acquired a passion for it: once you've walked into a football ground, you know there's nothing comparable to it.
Losing produces a weird reaction in me. I surrender all sense of perspective. It's ridiculous, really. All this over a football match.
The way I look at it is that somebody in the world, no matter what your field is - teacher, violinist, football player - has to be the best. Why not me?
There's two times of year for me: Football season, and waiting for football season.
If you were ever to interview me after a football game or at a football game or around me during football season is totally different than when you catch me away from football.
This is how I started playing: I was playing hooky one day, and the coach and the principal walked up behind me. They scared me, and I ran, and they noticed I could run really fast. They wanted me to come out for the football team.
You would not want me on your football team.
I was on the football team because I wanted to experience the different iconic social classes of high school. So football for me was an attempt to socially integrate in an interesting way. And then I didn't like it anymore and stopped doing it and focused more on drama and science and other forms of art and music.
The Bible is big in my teaching. It's a wonder the ACLU didn't get after me pretty good. I really kept thinking they would. I took my boys to church. I took my football team to church. I only did it two times a year. Before I signed a kid, I'd write the parents and I'd tell that parent we were gong to take your son to church twice.
I look at Messi, and he makes me laugh. A beautiful footballer who is still like a kid. A world superstar, but still a kid. Innocent, you know. He just plays.
