Quotes from Andre Gray

The Brexit thing says it all. It's all to do with immigration and the people that have voted to leave the EU... for me, it's because of racism, because they don't want people coming into our country.

When I go to America, I'm fortunate enough to stay in the nicer areas but the last time I went there - to New York last October, November - I went and explored. I went to the rough areas - to Brooklyn, Harlem, the Bronx; I walked around and you see it first-hand, what life is like out there.

It's difficult for my mum because she doesn't know half of the things that happened. She might think the sun shines out of me. That's the case with a lot of parents and their children - they don't really know what goes on when they leave the house.

The civil rights movement is something I've looked into a lot. When I was about 23, I started reading up on it all and watching TV programmes.

When I was at Hinckley it was just a case of taking it one step at a time - try to get into the Conference, then League Two and so on.

I know I can score goals, regardless of anything else that might be my weaknesses, I know I can score goals.

I always felt like I needed to be backed up in a corner to push myself.

My mum brought me up but it's hard for a woman to try to teach a son man things, so I've had to practically raise myself.

I believe I can be a Premier League player.

I want to score 15-20 goals a season in the Premier League. I want to be up there doing that. I know that I can do that.

It's hard to see yourself in the Premier League when you are in the Conference because the jump is so high. When I was there nobody had done it.

My family know me. They see who I am and how I've come out of the situation I've been in. And I'm still with them, they know me on a day-to-day basis.

I'm not just gonna get a random rapper tattooed on me.

In terms of school, we never got taught anything about black history. Growing up, a lot of things are hidden away from you.

Us, as footballers, are in a very privileged position.

The opportunities for black cultures need to change and we need to get more culture in higher positions in football, because I think the racism that happens on football fields hasn't been addressed properly and it's been brushed under the carpet.

I'm a private person. People just see me as the bad boy, and if that's how they want to perceive me, then so be it - but they don't know who I am.

I am a role model now, young people see what I am at present. People look up to me now I am playing for Burnley and it is frustrating that what happened in the past gets brought up to look like it is the present.

At first I didn't take football too seriously and then I realised what I wanted to do. I was seeing players get moves; a good friend went from Ilkeston to Luton and that made me see what was possible.

Before, if I'm in the wrong situation I tended to fight back and react in a way I know I shouldn't. If I feel backed into a corner or threatened, I will defend myself. Obviously it's wrong.

When I was at Hinckley I was on £200 a week. I was flying around getting myself into trouble here and there. It was a learning curve, relying on money that wasn't coming and having to survive.

The main reason I got released from Shrewsbury in the first place was for what I was doing off the pitch.

I didn't have time to worry about the great big scar on my face, I just had to be relieved I hadn't been stabbed in the eye or the neck. I had to accept what had happened and move on and football helped me to do that.

If people want to see me as the bad boy because one of my friends has gone to jail, then that's what they're going to think, but they haven't a clue about my life and what I've had to deal with growing up and the things I've been around.