I'm not a practicing Jew but my great-grandparents were. It's part of our family history.Collection: History
Confidence is a funny thing, and sometimes that's all you need is just that little bit to elevate you to the next level.Collection: Funny
That's the No. 1 thing you need to have, to believe you can win.
For me, I like interacting with Sounders fans. Some guys with their time off they want their time off, but I don't mind it.
When I was younger if I was in someone else's shoes, if you saw a professional athlete you'd want to go up and introduce yourself and ask a couple questions, so I definitely know where they're coming from.
It's good to defend a player that's as fast as me because I have to learn.
As a manager you're going to put out the player you think is going to best help you win the game.
Every manager has different opinions and all you can do as a player is try to fight and get your spot back, or at least earn your manager's trust back to try and get your spot back. There's no use sulking about it, you just get on with it and try to raise your game to get back to the level you need to be when you were starting.
A lot of people ask me what has been the biggest change with me being in England and a lot of people expect me to say something related to football, but mostly it's just growing up and becoming a man.
If you're not fully happy doing one thing, you try to do find another thing to take your mind from it.
In England, especially, mentally if you're not strong it can eat you up. There's the media, all the negativity surrounding footballers. If you're not mentally strong, it can eat you.
Living in London and having a lavish lifestyle, it's not that important to me.
In the midfield, I'm not the most comfortable playing with my back to the goal, and in the midfield you find that ball a lot.
I'm able to travel all over the world to play and do something that I love. That's not something that a lot of people get to do.
I try to value every day, every training session, every game.
I try not to snack, but my family, we're all big snackers. So I try to keep healthy snacks around, like Nutri-Grain bars, pistachios, that sort of thing. But you're always going to cheat a little bit.
Seattle is the place where you can really find any kind of food, especially Japanese food.
For me, I can't eat healthy 100 percent of the year. There's obviously those little times where you have to eat something that's not great for you, but you just need comfort food.
I won't eat past when I'm full. I think that's the problem some people have, they like a dish so much that they'll eat until it's completely gone and feel sick after. Me, if I feel full, ready, comfortable, I'll stop.
I couldn't really tell if it was a different childhood because I was used to it, it was kind of normal to me. The only time I remember it felt a bit odd was when I went to other people's houses and they were calling people 'dad.' I wouldn't get that. But my uncle, who also lived with me, was a father figure.
I think at some point I would like to meet my dad. He's in prison in the U.S. for life, so it's about figuring out where he is stationed and making time to see him.
I knew there was no money in track and field unless you were unbelievable. So I stopped it when I was 13. I just really wanted to focus on soccer and with soccer training and high school, it would have been too much if I did track and field as well.
Obviously the chance to work with Rafa, there's not really a better situation I could be in. He's great. He takes his time with you. One-on-ones, he'll stay out after training for another hour if you need it. He's been one of the best managers I've had.
I was raised to always be humble.
Positional awareness comes with experience, so getting game time helps, but we also work a lot in training as a back-line and also on defensive shape.
My defensive side was something I wanted to work on, especially coming into the Premier League.
Before, sometimes if the ball was played over my head I wouldn't know where I was but now I feel a lot more comfortable. Sometimes I would be going forward when it really wasn't the right time to go too, but now I'm picking my moments better.
I'm not really a political person but I'm not the biggest fan of Trump. I have my thoughts on him. I'm not a fan of his policies, the things he says, the things he's brought to the table.
The reason I joined Newcastle was because I could see we could do great things.
A lot of people don't realise how mentally tough the Premier League is.
I'm fortunate that Newcastle and the fans welcomed me with open arms because I know it's not easy being a former Sunderland player.
If you don't want competition, I think it means you're scared and you can get a little bit comfortable.
You never want to be too comfortable because that's when you start to get complacent and start doing those little stupid things and getting too relaxed.
Competition all over the field is great.
You're going to have highs and lows, but it's how you get through the lows.
Obviously if my path is with Tottenham then I'm very happy, I'm going to fight and do all that I can to help them. If it's not then, whatever team I am with, I am going to fight to help them, that's how my mind has always been.
As a player if you win 10 in a row and you lose one, or you lose 10 in a row, you are still going to be angry when you lose. It's the nature of the game.
I've played both right-back and right wing, I can't really say if I am more comfortable in one or the other but both are fun positions for me to play.
That comes with any position, you play it more and more and you get comfortable.
I think I just have the mentality that I'm always hungry.
I think I have kind of have the same mind-set that Kanye West has. He just likes to do his thing.
I'm fine with just a simple life.
I grew up with very strong family support. My grandparents raised me, and my uncle sort of played that father-figure role in my life.
There's no amount of money that can make me shut up about something I think is wrong.
When you face any adversity in life those are the kind of lessons you can take and remember. Those are the things that are going to help me not just in football but in life, which is priceless.
I think every player aspires to challenge themselves against the very best and that's what I'm hoping to do.
I like Daniel Alves, I have him as my inspiration.
I want to be in the World Cup.
You can see it with social media and things like that, back in the day it was harder to convince people that the police are wrong, which sounds crazy, but that's how it was back then.
I was fortunate to be raised in Seattle, which was amazing, but that doesn't take away from the fact I was still a black kid growing up in America.