I'm thankful for the collaboration between the WRU and Ospreys, which will look after my best interests and enables me to play the best rugby possible.Collection: Thankful
Happiness is dangerous. If you're happy, you're content, and if you're content, you can become complacent.Collection: Happiness
Before I was 'the captain' with the label - because essentially, that's all it is - I was a player, and before that, I was a fan of the game, fan of the team.
When I retire, my CV might have a few holes, things I haven't achieved that I would have felt I needed to do, but I won't know if I did need to do them until I retire.
Whatever you do, whether you're a journalist or a player, you want to see what you can do - that's why you're doing it.
I'll look at stats after a game to see the work I've done in different areas.
You know when you've had a good game, and you know when you could have done better.
If we have given everything we can, you are not settling for mediocrity because the better team won. Sometimes you have to have that mindset to be able to improve rather than keep telling yourself you should have won.
You do not have time in international rugby to stop and think, 'This is tough.' It's more a case of, 'Let's crack on.' Where's your next job? Fill a hole for someone who has just made a tackle?
I know there are certain things I may never achieve depending on whether I stay at the Ospreys or go.
If you had a global calendar, then you would have less games; you create more intrigue, create supply and demand with regards to the sport, and that will heighten the intrigue with regards to the Lions. Create more mystique not only at international level but at club level as well.
As you get older, you realise you can't worry about mistakes; you just worry about playing, and I've been doing that.
If I make a mistake, I just shrug it off and carry on.
If I talk to a young player, I always tell them never try too hard.
Every cap is my first, and every one is my last... that's the way I look at it.
I am always optimistic.
As I grow older, I like to think I'm getting a little bit more mature.
As individuals, we don't sometimes let ourselves enjoy things that we possibly should because of ways you want to be perceived, which is a silly thing as well.
I'll look back on my career as a whole and at parts of it and say I should have enjoyed that more. I suppose that's my own fault.
The higher up the rugby ladder you go, the differences between winning and losing games get smaller and smaller.
It's very easy to quantify performances and personal accolades, but ultimately, I'm in a team sport, and it's about winning.
There is ways and means to vent, and sometimes they can be the wrong ways.
The longer I have played, the perception of myself has changed. I conduct myself to other players a bit better.
I usually don't talk for three days after a defeat. Then you have an epiphany and realise it's just a game.
Ultimately, rugby players are like surfers. You look for the perfect wave, but you don't always find it. And if you did, you'd probably pack up and try something else.
That's the great thing about this sport: it's always different.
Apparently, I'm the angriest man. I don't know. It's just an interpretation. If it was someone else, they might be called focused or competitive. I'm not that angry or grumpy, but if you want to say I'm angry because I'm focused or competitive, then that's okay.
I'm happy in what I do, and I just like cracking on, doing what I love. The people around me know who I am, and that's what means the most.
Players want to play a lot of rugby. We're walking contradictions at times in that we want to play a lot of rugby, but we don't want to play too much rugby, and we want to be available for all the big games, yet there are times when you have to sacrifice that because of game limits.
I did GCSE's and A-levels. I did my finals after the Lions tour in 2009 to get my law degree. So I've always had an eye on life beyond playing, irrelevant of the period in my career.
It doesn't matter how young or old you are, and whatever jersey you wear, you realise the derby games prick up the hairs on the backs of people's necks.
I'll know when to retire when I don't want to push myself anymore.
I know part of me is going to die when I stop playing rugby.
I look back at all the contracts I've had, and I never assumed I would get another one. Honestly. I don't take anything for granted. Nothing.
To a point, family does that and a couple of life experiences both positive and negative that have definitely altered my perception on rugby. Whereas my first 28-29 years, rugby was the entire focus, which was not that healthy, now you realise what is really important.
It is very easy to make athletes, and it is very difficult to make rugby players with that rugby instinct. I would like to think I have got a bit of rugby instinct and have become more of a rugby athlete along the way.
I don't think you need to go global rugby to save the Lions, but I think you need to go global rugby to save rugby and not lose things like the Lions.
Ultimately, we are professional rugby people, and we focus on the rugby. That's the easy bit. We are not politicians, so we don't have to delve too much into that.
Whatever career you are in, you always have other distractions.
I wear my stripes on my sleeve, and I am not afraid to show them.
I am proud of being a bad loser. Bad losers are winners. That is the way it should be.
You're as good as your next game, not your previous, so I'll focus on the next one.
I am probably a bit numb upstairs, which is sometimes a good thing.
A bugbear of mine is bragging rights in regional derbies: it would be a lot more worth to the regional game if we did something special in European rugby.
I've no regrets. I don't think you can afford to.
What you put in, you usually get out. If you are not good enough on the day, fine, but if you put in everything you have, you usually get a decent result. When you lose, it motivates you to go again, not dwell on the past.
It really gets my back up when people start using business phrases - 'sustainability,' 'the brand,' etc. - about rugby.
My wife says to me, 'You have achieved a lot'... yeah, I do know. But... there are a couple of things I haven't.
Things come and go - there's win, losses, and injuries, but you get back on the horse - but I appreciate what I've done more.
Losing hurts, it always hurts, and it should hurt.