Quotes from Peter Crouch

I've been promoted, relegated, won big trophies, gone months without scoring, played for my country at World Cups, been bought, sold, loaned, and called 'a freak.'

I didn't come from a council estate like a lot of the lads do.

I had Fleetwood Mac on, and Saido Berahino asked me if it was from a movie soundtrack.

Right from school, I got mockery for the way I look. I took it to heart early on. I admit there were times when I doubted myself.

I used to pretend I was into speed garage when I hated it.

Never give up, and always believe you can achieve something.

One thing that annoys me in football is when people get carried away by results after four or five weeks of a new season.

When I started out, nobody told you how to do an interview. That's how I ended up on the front page of a newspaper dressed as Rodney Trotter with a Reliant Robin.

The thing you don't realise is that every time you head the ball, your brain shakes. Every single time. Have you ever headed a ball badly and seen stars for a couple of seconds? That's your brain shaking. Let's be honest: that can't be healthy, can it?

Nothing ever stays the same for very long in my life.

There shouldn't be a stigma about age with footballers.

I feel proud I was part of the old school and still around in the new school.

Everyone that I have taken the mick out of, or told a story about, is someone I know properly or someone who has been a team-mate, and I know can take it. I am not stitching anyone up.

I'm lucky: whatever I eat, I've never wavered from just under 14 stone.

I don't know why, but if I was walking down the street, the same people who called me freak would probably ask for a picture. It's a real strange thing.

If you're good enough, you're old enough: that's what everyone says. When a talented young player emerges, his age doesn't matter; people want to see him in the team. So why, when you become older, is the assumption that you are no longer good enough?

During the Sir Alex Ferguson years, you would see all those great players - Roy Keane, Paul Scholes, David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Jaap Stam, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Cristiano Ronaldo, to name just a few - and you'd quickly realise why Old Trafford had an aura like nowhere else.

I have really got into watching the unsigned bands. They play mad venues like the Sugarmill in Stoke and all sorts of underground, grimy places.

If you're different in any way at school,then you're going to get a bit of abuse. You learn to deal with it in a way where people don't come back at you again.

I didn't think too much about people who didn't believe in me. It hasn't really affected me.

I do a fantastic job for a living: I get to play in front of 90,000, and obviously, everyone knows your name and what have you. But I'm no better than anyone else.

Analysing games on the TV is something that appeals to me, and anything where you watch football and get paid for it is not a bad living!

For whatever reason, I have got a few goals against Arsenal, so I do enjoy playing against them.

When I was young, I always enjoyed watching skilful players and trying to emulate them the same as everyone else.