Quotes from Megan Rapinoe

There are not many athletes who are out. And I think it's something that's important. It felt important to me. I guess it seems like a weight off my shoulders, because I've been playing a lot better than I've ever played before. I think I'm just enjoying myself, and I'm happy.

Maybe you are homophobic a little bit, but then you see me, and you've always loved me, and you love the way I play, and your kids love me. And then you're like, 'Oh, that's OK. It's fine.' Once it gets a little bit more personal, it helps break down those barriers.

Be honest about how you approach failure. Don't just be critical of yourself, because that can be self-serving. Approach it honestly, assess your performance, and assess the areas where you have fallen short. Correct them and move on. Don't dwell on it. Don't hold on to it.

I've gotten a lot more disciplined since dating Sue.

For this group, because we have so many big personalities, I think the manager also has to have a big personality but in a way that sort of knows how to deal with everything.

I was made exactly the way I was meant to be made in who I am and my personality and the way I was born.

My mom, whether it's right or wrong, she had dreams for me to have a certain life. It takes time to get used to that. But they've been really supportive, and they love me for exactly who I am.

I play a certain style. I'm not willing to compromise that part of me.

A typical week of training leading up to a major championship is like the sprinkling of parsley at the end of a dish. It's just the final little touches, that last little bit of strength or fitness, but mostly you are ready and are just maintaining and staying healthy.

Being a woman, we talk about equal pay all the time. We're not talking about if you're black or if you are Latina. I would like to get back to that and improving the relationship between the police community and the community of color. I don't know exactly all the right things to say, but I want to engage in that conversation.

You have someone like Colin or many of the other athletes who have knelt, especially athletes of colour, and if you're not respecting what they're saying, if you're not believing their charges of police brutality or racial inequality, you're saying that they're lying.

I think that a lot of these cops have been put in very difficult situations and tasked with very difficult jobs with very little training and very little help.

I think our team kind of strives on weirdness sometimes. We have that 'rah-rah, rally' sort of American mentality that we can all kind of get around.

Sometimes when you date people, you end up breaking up, and if teammates are mature enough to deal with that, then it's okay. I never want to bring any undue drama to the team.

I feel like it's actually everybody's responsibility to use whatever platform they have to do good in the world, basically, and to try to make our society better, whether you're an accountant or an activist or an athlete or whatever it is. I think it's everybody's responsibility.

I've had to learn how to listen to my body over the years and figure out how it all works together. I'm not invincible, so focusing on training my whole body and injury prevention have been extremely important.

There are plenty of sports teams that say they're very open and super accepting in the locker room. But are they really? Is it really a safe environment? Have they preset that environment to make these players feel comfortable for coming out? I don't think so because there's none out.

It's really obvious that we have very serious inequality in this country across many different spectrums. Yes, we can talk about the form of protest or the way it's done or this or that. But it's still not really the conversation that I think we desperately need to have more of in this country.

I don't think there's any perfect way to protest.

If we want to be proud to be from a country like America and all the things that we hang our hats on, like diversity, equality, land of the free and home of the brave, it's everybody's responsibility to ensure that everyone in the country is being afforded the same rights.

I think it's very difficult, and people don't give enough credit to how hard it is to do in-game commentary. I'd have a lot of work to do, but I'd definitely be interested. I'm always interested in breaking down the game, and I'd love to see more females doing it.

Being a winger or a wide mid, I have to run continuously for 90 minutes, which not only takes endurance but also strength in my legs to be able to be explosive for 90 minutes. I think weight training has really allowed me to sustain for those 90 minutes.

In female sports, if you're gay, most likely your team knows it pretty quickly. It's very open and widely supported. For males, it's not that way at all. It's sad.

I think there's a lot of gay women in sports, and it's widely known in the team; they can live a pretty open lifestyle without being open in the media.