Quotes from Brian O'Driscoll

I've been a professional rugby player all my life; I don't really know anything different.

There's ego in all of us rugby players.

Before there was any chance to go to England, I changed schools, and it was rugby from there on in.

I was a football fan before I became a rugby fan.

As you get older, the defeats become more painful. They definitely hurt more.

I found in the past when I did a bit of punditry, I was very conscious of not saying anything negative about people I played against, because players are elephants and they remember when someone says something - I stored things for years and just waited for my opportunity.

I get burnt in the sun, so there's no point me getting pecs for when I take my shirt off in the summer.

You have perspective when little people come into your life. You take the best things you have and let them overshadow your disappointment.

I still get a great buzz from rugby.

I've always found when I was captain when other people were doing the talking for me, I didn't need to say as much, and when I did say one or two things, people tended to listen all the more.

I don't really want to be the centre of attention.

That's what happens in the world. You get offered superior contracts.

Growing up, I supported Manchester United, and my hero was Mark Hughes.

If you can be a good role model for people, well, great. You try and live your sporting life and the rest of your life as well as you can, and if it's something that people admire, well, fantastic. I don't sit at home and think about it too much, though - there's plenty of other things in my life going on.

I just want to concentrate on my rugby and enjoy it and live in the moment.

You've to celebrate the good days because there are brutal days that make the good ones sweet.

One thing I learnt early on my career is that personal gratification takes second place.

I'm not privy to the English set-up, but at the academies in Ireland, there is a huge focus on the weights room as opposed to whether they can throw a 10-metre pass on the run. They should be rugby players becoming athletes, not athletes becoming rugby players.

The great thing about playing team sport is you win and lose together, and the pain is never as bad when you share it.

Team sports are very important for shaping personalities. It's important that kids understand the mentality behind playing team sports and playing for one another and playing with friends.

Until you win a series, it's difficult to place yourself in that elite group of great Lions players. It's not enough to produce one-off performances or be nearly-men.

You cannot say things one week and then behave differently.

There is still a big onus to be coached. I understand the best teams don't need a huge amount of coaching, but that's when a coach should decide not to do coaching.

You go into the Lions camp with preconceived ideas about players and teams and then find guys are actually very different, and the beauty of the Lions is that all those characters are moulded into it. I find that exciting.