I had people in my life who didn't give up on me: my mother my aunt my science teacher. I had one-on-one speech therapy. I had a nanny who spent all day playing turn-taking games with me.

I love playing football being out on the pitch with a ball and I will be a little sad when that ends.

I enjoyed in every way my 12 years of playing Archie and I wasn't personally sad about finishing a long job.

And I remember going to the record studio and there was a park across the street and I'd see all the children playing and I would cry because it would make me sad that I would have to work instead.

I'm sick of playing romantic leads.

When you're playing a romantic version of a real person you're playing a version of the truth.

And I don't believe that children are innocent. In fact no one seriously believes that. Just go to a playground and watch the kids playing in the sandbox! The romantic notion of the sweet child is simply the parents projecting their own wishes.

The vampire was a complete change from the usual romantic characters I was playing but it was a success.

I can remember when I was a baby and my mother was there watching the show. I went and bought 100 episodes and watched them. I respect it so much that the sitcom itself and Ed Norton I'm not playing Ed Norton but my version of it cause I'm a black man.

Anyone who can do the splits and come back up on the backbeat as James Brown and Prince can has my eternal respect. Prince who is a genius of the highest order can come back up while singing and playing the guitar.

I refuse to step inside the ring and fight like a gladiator against my own. I'm not playing that game. Any woman who has survived a year or more of making music has my undying respect.

In the mean time I worship God laying every wrong action under an interdict which I endeavour to respect and I loathe the wicked without doing them any injury.

As a younger actor you want to be approved of you want to gain respect be admired. All of those things. To say: 'This is me playing this character. And aren't I fantastic!' I don't feel that so much now.

Arsenal have won that advantage nobody gave it to them. By playing fantastic football and by winning matches and by winning trophies they won that respect that the opponent has for them.

I started listening to and playing other music in the '90s. It was after hearing other bands like Bad Religion cover Ramones songs that I started to like our songs again.

Playing a character who's dealing not only with a superpower but having a normal relationship is easy to associate with because I feel that everyone has been through it.

I've never had a relationship with a record executive. I always went to the record company by someone that liked my playing. Then they would get fired and I'd be left with the record company. And then - because they got fired - the record company wouldn't do anything for me.

Film music should have the same relationship to the film drama that somebody's piano playing in my living room has on the book I am reading.

I have hair that I audition with my sitcom hair which is a curly wig. I have my long chic hair that I wear to my son's school so they know I'm not playing around. I always tell people that my husband gets a different woman every night when I come home from 'The View.' Hair makes you feel a certain way like putting a power suit on.

We found out tonight how important and how crucial momentum swings can be. I thought we were playing very well. We were doing a lot of positive things but then we lost the puck two times in our zone and things swung their way. You can't afford to give teams momentum.

I have nothing to lose and think that it's a positive thing that I am young and playing on a good level.

But I would be naive not to recognize the number of musicians who tell me they have been influenced by me and sight me - as well as Alex and Neil - as a musician who has been a positive influence on their playing.

Since turning professional at 18 I have travelled the world playing the game that I love and consider myself a global player. As the World No.1 right now I wish to be a positive role model and a sportsperson that people respect and enjoy watching.

To me it doesn't matter how good you are. Sport is all about playing and competing. Whatever you do in cricket and in sport enjoy it be positive and try to win.