Quotes from Jimmy White

I would have prepared differently before big matches but I wouldn't change my life.

My dad was a coalman and was always playing snooker with his mates.

I love playing O'Sullivan. It is a bit of a role reversal from when I used to play Alex Higgins.

In the past it sometimes took me two or three rounds to get the adrenaline rush.

I got to 16st when it became painful for me to walk.

I like visiting new places where the game is opening up.

I'm a supporter of Barry Hearn, I voted for him and will support him in whatever he wants to do.

I used to be jack the lad, I was out a lot, I was mainly waking up with hangovers at tournaments rather than preparing.

Within a day of wearing the insoles, my feet felt more comfortable, and a week later I was able to go for walks, play golf, and play football with my son, which I hadn't for years. The insole is sculpted to the foot and manipulates it into the correct position, preventing damage to the plantar fascia tissue.

I was never a playboy but I was an out and about boy.

It is like any sport. You practise thousands of times and you miss the simplest ball and you don't understand why. But that's why snooker is so special, because all of sudden you can lose everything.

Because I could do things on the snooker table that no other player could do, I just had this sort of self-destruct button in me.

Listen, I could have won the World Championship. Obviously if I had the chance to do it all again I would do things differently. But then would I have still wanted to play?

Alex Higgins was my hero, so to play in Belfast, at the superb Waterfront Hall, is very special to me.

Golf and snooker are similar. They are ball games that you don't have to be super fit for. It's not like boxing or football when, at 35, you are on your way home.

I play golf but very badly.

In a way, sometimes I was quite pleased when I got beat, 'cos then I could do my antics.

I've survived through my love for the game.

Over the years I have been in a lot of trouble but I've always managed to switch off and play.

I play poker face to face.

I have been tamed. My party days are well and truly behind me.

The thought of the weekends I used to have now makes me shake.

I used to think of exhibitions as being practice but they are not.

Ronnie O'Sullivan, the greatest snooker player ever, will tell you that he doesn't practise. I'm not having that. I call him Roger, after Federer, because he's a genius. He doesn't like that nickname.