It is frustrating when you go all that way, you train, and you just don't turn up. It does happen. If you play 100-odd Test matches, there's going to be little periods when you don't score the runs.
— Alastair Cook
It hurts like hell when you come into a contest and you end up being second best.
Playing for England is such a huge honour - it should always remain that.
I am much more happy in a country pub with 10 blokes having a pint than going to a night club.
I think my general view of day-night Test cricket is that there is definitely something there that the ICC can keep looking at because it moves the game forward with timing and allows more people to come and watch.
I'm a country boy at heart. I love it when you've got your boots on and you're standing in three inches of cow muck.
Everyone has technical issues - you have them until you die - but you have to be aware of them in a certain way.
When you step out of the team environment you think, 'Wow, I'm England captain and we've just won the Ashes.'
Relief isn't quite the right word but there's satisfaction at a job well done and I'm proud to say that I'm an Ashes-winning captain. Without taking it too personally, it has a nice little ring to it.
The England captaincy job, after 50-odd games, has found out what kind of leader I am in terms of a person. It's made me feel far more confident in terms of talking to a group in any situation. But it has taken me a long time to feel like I've been doing it naturally.
Test cricket gives ultimate satisfaction that I don't think any other type of cricket does due to the nature and longevity of it.
I don't think you have to be this macho man all the time, just because you play sport.
Nobody walks over me, ever, and no-one will walk over me, ever.
Many people have helped me during my career and without them and fantastic team-mates and coaches it would not have been possible to achieve all that I have.
I think it's very hard to shake what people first think of you straightaway.
The captaincy thing is brilliant, and I love it. But I didn't start off playing cricket to captain England. I wanted to score runs and stuff.
People like Mo Ali, Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Joe Root, they are looking to take attack to the opposition and that's when they play their best.
Self-belief is certainly an issue you need to make sure you look after when you've lost heavily in two games.
If you have lost matches and not played to potential, criticism will come your way. Critics and media will say what they see and take you on. They will say things which you might not like to hear. But that's professional sport.
I love cricket but I like being away from it as well.
My girlfriend comes from a farming background and I spend a lot of time at her farm doing farming stuff. When you're pulling lambs out, or weighing them or worming them or doing whatever you do to sheep you're not thinking about Brett Lee.
In the end, playing for England means very little if you don't see the rest of the world around you. It is why I hate prima donnas and arrogance.
The musical training taught me to focus my mind, before playing in an orchestra taught me how to truly concentrate. If you miss your moment in an orchestra, there is no forgiving.
The biggest thing was probably a better understanding of the mental side of cricket and also the technical challenges I have in my game. Those two things happened in a very short space of time which changed me as a player.
The beauty of cricket is that there are so many different opinions as to the best way to do something and at times it is easier to see something when you're not emotionally involved in the game and not responsible for the decision. You can go and have a cup of tea and look at it from a different point of view.
When someone says, 'How long do you see yourself captaining for?' you don't really know.
In one sense, what happens for me outside of cricket gives me that break - the farming means I have a really different life outside of cricket; it's not just cricket, cricket, cricket for 12 months of the year.
When you give up something as big as playing for England there are going to be moments when you miss it.
I'm not some little soft touch. I will never take a backward step when batting, but I want to be respected as a nice guy, too.
I love the individual sport stuff but the experiences I've had with some great people over 12 or 15 years are what makes is special. That individual thing: me versus the bowler is great but you get that team feeling as well and that's why it suits me so well.
I am hugely honoured and proud to be receiving a knighthood.
You're never as good as people say you are and you're never as bad as people say you are. You're always in the middle at some stage.
You want to score runs at the highest average you can. That's what motivates you to keep driving the standards.
I have loved cricket my whole life, from playing in the garden as a child, and will never underestimate how special it is to pull on an England shirt.
Alex Hales has tightened up his game from South Africa and learned about Test cricket. It's great when you see someone who doesn't quite nail it, but goes away and works away at it, come back a person who understands more about Test cricket.
You need to come to terms with the fact that you are not an international cricketer anymore and that's certainly difficult to come to terms with. But then I love going to my farm and spending time with my family. Drop and pick up my kids from school and play cricket as well.
The stats suggest that I'm not a dasher. It doesn't mean I can't play the shots, but when you find a method in four-day and Test cricket that works for you, you stick with it.
That is one of the great things about Test cricket, the ball. Sometimes it swings conventionally, sometimes it doesn't and sometimes it reverses.
Sheep are never going to talk to you about cricket.
When you are so close to something, it's like a bar of soap - if someone says hold on to it, the harder you squeeze, the quicker it pops out of your hand.
The atmosphere and the first days of Test matches against Australia are incredible.
The most important opinions to me are those that belong to the guys in the changing room.
My stubbornness helped me for the first half of my career; I had that real determination to do it my way - I know the best way. That helped me from a 14-year-old to 25 in getting me to where I got to.
It's surreal to think that no one has played as many Test matches for England. I suppose it's a credit to my longevity.
No disrespect to county cricket but when you're playing for England it is the ultimate, it is what has always driven me to push myself above and beyond.
You don't get to the top in professional sport without being hard and tough, but I do that in my way. I don't shout or scream, but I am determined and I will push harder than 99 per cent of cricketers in training.
The battle between bat and ball is a one-on-one thing. I love that stuff, but you play it in a team.
When I first came into the side as captain, I was accused of being quite conservative, quite negative, and just doing what Andrew Strauss did.
I made my debut in 2006 and absolutely, there was the pressure of the cricket, but there was no social media. There was no direct feedback to your phone. If you wanted to, you could avoid it.
No matter how much cricket you have played you are always learning.
