Alastair Cook
Am I happiest on the farm or out in the middle? I am a cricketer, but the farm is a very special place and I absolutely love being in the countryside and getting away from the bubble. I like to think I'm a farmer, but there's so much experience that goes into that.Collection: Experience
No matter how much cricket you have played you are always learning.Collection: Learning
I don't think you have to be this macho man all the time, just because you play sport.
Nobody walks over me, ever, and no-one will walk over me, ever.
I made my debut in 2006 and absolutely, there was the pressure of the cricket, but there was no social media. There was no direct feedback to your phone. If you wanted to, you could avoid it.
Without sounding arrogant, I achieved a lot more than I thought I would do.
The family farm plays such a big part in my life and I genuinely love going back there. In some ways I'd like to spend every day there, but there would be a big hole in my life if I didn't stay involved in cricket.
I think it's very hard to shake what people first think of you straightaway.
I'm a country boy at heart. I love it when you've got your boots on and you're standing in three inches of cow muck.
The stats suggest that I'm not a dasher. It doesn't mean I can't play the shots, but when you find a method in four-day and Test cricket that works for you, you stick with it.
When I was made captain, one of my things was that whatever happens in those four years, you don't want to make major changes just before a World Cup. We'd done it before, and it never worked.
Many people have helped me during my career and without them and fantastic team-mates and coaches it would not have been possible to achieve all that I have.
I have loved cricket my whole life, from playing in the garden as a child, and will never underestimate how special it is to pull on an England shirt.
I have achieved more than I could have ever imagined and feel very privileged to have played for such a long time alongside some of the greats of the English game.
If you play 100-odd Test matches, there's going to be little periods when you don't score runs, and I've always managed to turn it around.
I do feel sorry for my younger brother, he used to field a lot.
My stubbornness helped me for the first half of my career; I had that real determination to do it my way - I know the best way. That helped me from a 14-year-old to 25 in getting me to where I got to.
You're never as good as people say you are and you're never as bad as people say you are. You're always in the middle at some stage.
The battle between bat and ball is a one-on-one thing. I love that stuff, but you play it in a team.
The beauty of cricket is that there are so many different opinions as to the best way to do something and at times it is easier to see something when you're not emotionally involved in the game and not responsible for the decision. You can go and have a cup of tea and look at it from a different point of view.
Sheep are never going to talk to you about cricket.
Sport is an entertainment, in one sense. But it's also a business.
When I watch Twenty20 cricket, there's a different satisfaction. That hundred you get in six hours is a very satisfying feeling. A real triumph of skill. I don't quite see that in the 20-over game - or the 100-ball game.
If someone taps me on the shoulder and tells me they don't want me to open the batting for England, it's going to hurt.
In international cricket you have to thrive on the big stage, you have to deal with the media and the pressure.
Physically and mentally, it's quite hard. But I'm playing cricket for England. It's what I dream about doing.
The delight you feel in that split second you score your first hundred is so intense it can't be repeated.
From a purely selfish, batting point of view, I couldn't bat any better than the 2010-11 Ashes and then in India in 2012. That was as good as I could play.
I suppose you could say I was always having to defend my style of captaincy. I did get a lot of criticism - some of it justified, other times as part of a tactic.
Just because you're made England captain, it doesn't mean that you suddenly know everything about captaincy.
As cricketers we fail all the time. You score a hundred every now and again but you get out between nought and 20 far more often. If you get 50, you feel bad because you should have got a hundred. Even if you get a hundred, you feel you should have got 150. So you're always failing.
All I ever wanted to do was play cricket for England and be successful.
Franchise cricket is here to stay because of the money.
As cricketers we're judged on the average we have from being a 21-year-old who's just come into international cricket to the day you retire.
I was never going to be the best player the world has ever seen but one thing I can be proud of is that I genuinely believe I have become the best player that I could have become.
Learning on the job as England captain is hard.
Throughout my career I have done it my way and used my stubborn streak. I thought the best way to captain was to shut out all the noise - I did it with my batting and thought 'that has served me well, so why change it?'
Everyone has technical flaws - no matter how many runs you score.
I miss being the focal point of the team - the guy everyone looks to for decisions. And guidance.
Being a dad is best thing you can do, it's very exciting.
Parenthood changes things a lot.
I always found one-day cricket a lot harder. I had to change my game.
When you're playing, every ball seems like the biggest event. When you're sitting back, you can see the overall picture better.
There's nothing worse than going out without contributing.
I think a lot when I'm on my own - and much of it is about cricket.
It's very hard to reflect properly when you're still playing but the hundreds one - when I got my 23rd in Kolkata - felt the most special because it broke a benchmark that had stood for a very long time. It felt good to do something no Englishman has done before.
When I'm away from cricket I switch off totally. Otherwise I would never be able to keep that same hunger.
In a normal series you can have a couple of bad games and still win it.
You're always under pressure, that's what life is about. That is what playing international cricket or being a professional sportsman is.
I think I come back to Essex and fit in pretty well but until you get there you don't know.