At the end of 2003, my game was complete. Shooting, defense, using the dribble, transition, midrange stuff was all there. Then it was about fine-tuning and trying to improve in each area.
It never bothered me when people would say, 'You only win championships because you're playing with Shaq.' It bothered me when he said it.
The clothes are not making me... If I like it, that's all that matters...It's not about the clothes. It's about how I am as a person and how confident I am.
The beautiful thing about when you go through a slide is that you learn from it. Not just saying that you learn from it, but applying the things that you have learned.
It's scary when one day the city is there and the next day it's gone. To see the water actual kill people, I couldn't believe it. I never fathomed it could bury a city.
At the end of the day, I've played six years, haven't made the playoffs yet, that burns me and hurts my heart, so I really want to be playing.
I just go out there and play. I don't know if it's being young and not getting calls, or some other circumstances. I'm just trying to make a play.
To me, throwback means I'm a smart player. I know how to play the game. I'm very skilled. I do a lot of things that other people don't do.
You always dream of going to the Olympics and winning gold. I've learned over the years that there are lots of gold medals, but certain stories stick out and make a difference.
I felt that to do this drug, I had to become someone totally different than I was. I had to compromise my integrity, my value system. I knew it was so wrong.
I felt betrayed by him, extremely betrayed. He made me believe that if I followed a certain protocol of supplements and different drugs that I could become number 1 in the world.
My preferred style is to write in first person, so I always have to play around with possible narrator voices until I find something that works.
Childhood doesn't have to be perfect, and children don't have to be beautiful. From a bit of grit may grow a pearl, and if pearl production doesn't materialise, the outcome will still be preferable to the shallowness of vanity.
My husband is leaving me. No dramas, no slammed doors - well, OK, a few slammed doors - and no suitcase in the hall, but there is another woman involved. Her name is Dementia.
I almost always use first person voice in my novels. It has its limitations, but it gives a sense of immediacy that's hard to create with an anonymous, all-seeing narrator.
Once, every woman owned a small mirrored compact, and it was considered normal - sophisticated even - to flip it open to discreetly check for things like nose-glow or lipstick smudge.
The word 'carer' makes me think of someone with a nylon overall and a long list of 'clients' to wash before she finishes her shift. A companion was something unique. A kind of live-in friend.
My husband is stricken with dementia, and it's a trick of his condition that events and people from his past are more real to him than what happened five minutes ago.
My video game character is a bit better looking than me, actually. I don't think he has to worry about his hair getting messed up.
Warren Buffet told me once and he said always follow your gut. When you have that gut feeling, you have to go with don't go back on it.
I've always been an unselfish guy, and that's the only way I know how to play on the court and I try to play to the maximum of my ability - not only for myself but for my teammates.
