Quotes from Gary Lineker

Diving is a really, really difficult one because a player is the only one who genuinely knows whether they have dived. You can look at it at 40 different angles and not know. And you can just fall over, too.

Very sad to hear the news about George Michael. An incredible talent who brought joy to millions of us with his music.

Playing football and presenting TV are totally different things, but there are similarities: it's exciting, it can go well, it can go badly... the difference is when presenting goes badly, it doesn't really affect anyone's life, whereas when you have a bad day on the pitch, it affects people's moods for a whole week.

Ultimately, if we can develop enough players, the balance of foreign players isn't great, but that's because we're not producing enough players.

We are living in difficult times. There are a lot of people out of work - am I going to stand there and whinge? No, because I am lucky to have such a wonderful job.

That's one of the magical things about the Olympics, Team GB will have someone challenging in a sport that we've never watched and all of a sudden it'll be the biggest thing ever.

If you are at the top in entertainment, you earn money that you can never justify to ordinary people doing proper jobs. You can't.

The two centre-backs, Rob Huth and Wes Morgan, are in many ways journeyman pros, but they have that wonderful attitude and never-say-die spirit that has culminated in them being top of the league.

We have got too many kids around the house to have a romantic meal at home. But Danielle is a fantastic cook. She does a brilliant lasagne, great roasts and a great chilli dish. She knows the way to my heart.

I try to avoid saying 'fantastic' too often and 'obviously' is a dangerous word for all broadcasters.

We're all concerned about sports rights being so expensive. Obviously, we are funded by the licence fee payers, so it's not always easy to compete with those who can get greater revenue.

In any other corporation, if there was so many things that were found to be corrupt, then the man at the top would go - but that doesn't seem to be the case with FIFA.

Personal records are not what football is all about, but as goalscorers, we live and die by figures and numbers because, ultimately, that's how people will judge you.

When I retired in 1994, I was never tempted to drop down the divisions to carry on playing. In fact, I never kicked a ball again, not even in a charity match.

I've known Mark Hughes for half a lifetime. We joined Barcelona in the same summer of 1986, played together under Terry Venables and Luis Aragones, and have kept in touch ever since.

He's got great credentials by winning the World Cup, but he did it with Brazil - my granny could probably have managed Brazil to World Cup success.

I know I am extraordinarily lucky to be doing what I am doing. I have worked hard along the way and I have been blessed too. I have had a great life.

I've been in the public eye so long, I can't remember how it was when it was different - from my mid-20s onwards, when my career started to blossom and I became an international, world cups and things.

Basically, Walkers are putting real produce into their flavours, so the cheese and onion flavour is actually cheese and onion rather than just flavourings.

In my day, I wasn't the best footballer, but I was the best goalscorer for two or three years.

I think medically, football is generally well looked after. There are always checks made. Anything which can be done to make footballers or sportsmen of any area safer has to be encouraged.

Twitter is an amazing thing; it brings footballers closer to the fans because so many of them are on there. I was cynical about it to begin with, but I have been converted.

When Bob Wilson left the BBC for ITV, I got the 'Football Focus' job, and it went from there. It came completely out of the blue, but the fact I had a high profile certainly helped.

The possibility that a provincial town could win the League completely bucks the trend.