Life isn't perfect, of course, but we all know it's how you react to things that counts.
Landon Donovan
I sure am handsome. I can't lie. This is one handsome guy.
You put a lot of pressure on your defenders to be able to hold the fort when you go forward.
I like teff, an Ethiopian grain. It's not so popular in the States yet, but it's really good, almost like a porridge. And I love sushi, but it's not always that healthy, so I don't keep it at home.
I genuinely want to do my best every day, and I genuinely want to enjoy life every day.
I remember - when I was little, I remember playing 'Tecmo Bowl,' and I would be so excited to be Bo Jackson in the game that I wanted to watch him play in real life.
I talk periodically with the producers at EA and I try to be as honest as possible because as great as EA does, you just don't want to hear good things. These people are really passionate about making games and making them as realistic as possible.
I grew up playing video games. And the cool thing about the EA Sports games is they took me through the whole motion-capture thing, where they put little sensors on my body so the video game really is me. It actually moves the way I move.
I've never asked a player if they would sign my shoe.
Fortunately, I don't spend too much time reading or worrying about what people have to say, but the goal for me throughout this whole process - throughout my whole life - is to try to be happy.
I want to be a positive influence. I want to be someone who they want to call in and want here consistently, regardless of my role.
As a spectator, you get to watch everything, but I'd much rather be playing than watching. I'll have time to watch later in my career.
My brother and I have always had this theory that, as stupid as it sounds, in video games, there is a certain hand-eye coordination and a thought process that you can learn.
Unfortunately, I think there's not enough education about hydration. When I was young, we knew nothing about it. We all know that there's cases of athletes having serious issues because of dehydration and even dying.
If you've followed my career at all, you will know that I perform best in comfortable surroundings. Though other leagues may seem more enticing to other players, it's something I'm just not interested in doing personally.
Fortunately for me, it's my most favorite drill, and that is finishing. However, from a young age, soccer players in this country are not taught how to properly finish, and I think you see that through the professional ranks, that we don't have that killer instinct of the forwards from other countries.
Men are sort of doofuses about sunscreen, and for the most part, women are more inclined to take better care of themselves, but a reminder is always good for everyone.
Skin cancer became personal to my family when my father was diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma.
I've always been active - outdoors, on the beach, playing - and so to go home and have to sit on my couch and relax... it's frustrating. Sometimes, you just have to really shut yourself down.
I've always thought it would be interesting to give insight on soccer because I have a lot of experience in my career.
When people say 'American soccer,' they think of the U.S. national team. But American soccer also includes Major League Soccer, and until we have a league that produces players at the rate other leagues around the world do, I don't believe we'll ever get to where we want to be.
The advantage doesn't come because you can run more than someone over 90 minutes. The advantage comes when, in the tenth minute, I'm sprinting back and making another guy chase me. By the end of the game, that guy's worn down, but I can still keep going at the same pace.
It's got to be harder in real life to win a World Cup. But depending on if you play World Class level on FIFA, it's going to be difficult to win in the video game, too.
You got me: I do Pilates. I love Pilates because we do very specific training in soccer for the same six or seven muscles, but we neglect so many other muscles. So when I do Pilates, it helps get all the rest of the muscles in shape and gets them working together.
I've never met anybody who says they don't like the World Cup. If you're a soccer fan or not, everybody loves watching it, and I think it could be the same for other sports.
My guess is that if David Beckham wants Ronaldo's jersey, he's going to get it.
As athletes, most of the time we deal with fans cussing at us, saying how much we suck.
As athletes, we all have egos, we all think we can help, and when you're not given that chance, it's hard to watch.
I think where we're still a little bit behind some other countries is just our pure soccer knowledge and our savvy on the field. That takes time and generations that have watched soccer growing up, played the game growing up.
I got to say 'Hi' to Dolly Parton, which my mom thought was kind of cool.
I'm a little skeptical of foreign coaches in our league and in U.S. Soccer just because of how different our league is and our players are than other players around the world.
When you're with your club team, every week you have a performance to judge. But when you're with the national team, it's a little different because you might not play for three or four months at a time. Things change constantly.
I think all players reach a point in their career where it's natural to lose some of that hunger, that desire, to sort of break out or be a star.
That's a part that's always a challenge for athletes: trying to keep the passion alive while knowing it's still your job. There's no question that at some point, probably sooner rather than later, I'll be pretty burned out. And when that time comes, then I'll take a step back and take a look at it and see if I want to keep going.
I miss driving to Goodison Park. I miss just the positive energy of the fans walking into the stadium and how much they care about that club and the team. And I miss the players a lot.
I know conventional wisdom has always been to go to Europe, and I did that early on, and I tried it, but I realised pretty quickly if I wasn't playing, nothing else mattered - I wasn't going to be happy.
A lot of times I watch sporting events, and there are things I want to say and things I see that don't get said or talked about.
I have to be able to be honest and be credible, and I think I can say, 'This guy did not have his best game today' rather than, 'He is awful and I cannot believe he did that.'
There was this old soccer game called 'Goal' for the old Nintendo, and ever since then, I've played everything from the old school games to the 360.
I think it's probably a good lesson for other people to follow - to not always make the decision that's popular for others, but to do what you feel like is the right thing to do.
I don't think in terms of legacy or that kind of stuff. I've always thought that'll take care of itself if I did everything right on a day-to-day basis.
I would probably say that being a commissioner in sports is one of the hardest jobs in the world.
The biggest thing for me with charity is awareness. Obviously as an athlete, I have an opportunity to make people more aware. The average person doesn't have that opportunity, so the best way is to spare some money, clothing, food - something. Most of us have a little excess of something that we can give.
There have been weeks when I've not been hydrating properly or not eating properly or training too hard. When I do that, I don't feel good. It has to be the exact formula.
