Shaq and Muhammad Ali's my favorite two athletes of all time.
— Martellus Bennett
I'm a straightforward person. I think sometimes it comes off the wrong way.
When my daughter was born, I was reading a lot of children's books, and there weren't any characters who looked like her. For all the content that's out there, there aren't many African-American protagonists. I looked at it like, if there isn't someone else creating it then I have to do it myself.
When you look at me see the father, the awesome dad, the author, film director, business owner, champion, friend, Hufflepuff beast.
Playing in the NFL isn't really - and shouldn't have to be - every black boy's dream. But black boys don't always know that their dreams off the field matter.
I've always been interested in clothing because it's an extension of how we feel.
For some reason as a kid being a smart athlete didn't seem like the right thing, because you didn't fit in. You didn't want to be too smart because you'd be a nerd. But then you didn't want to be too dumb either because then you didn't get the grades you needed to play.
I believe happiness breeds success and not the other way around.
My ultimate goal is to live forever, but the only way to live forever is to create and you always want to be there for your kid.
I feel like there are not a lot of us, in terms of African American owners or creators. I'm trying to get kids and communities to think not just about playing for the team, but owning the team. You don't always have to be the worker bee.
First and foremost, I am a husband and a father, which is a full-time job.
If I'm not with my family or playing football then I'm usually in my office writing and drawing.
I'm the creative director of awesomeness.
I have a library, and it's like I want to beat Belle on 'Beauty and the Beast' and have a better library than she had.
I thought Willy Wonka was brilliant. He had all kinds of candy. Who doesn't like chocolate and candies? Everybody wanted a Gobstopper. I just think he's brilliant.
I'm always excited anytime I get a chance to be a better player and work with different people.
A lot of people hate winners.
I'm like always smiling but I'm superaggressive. I have like a different type of chip on my shoulder.
What if Macauley Culkin were black in 'Home Alone?' Most people would write it differently... but I would write it the same way.
I'd never worked for anyone else until I got to the NFL, and this will be my last time working for someone else.
I love to read because I know that for a long time ancestors weren't allowed to. I love to write. Because for a long time my people weren't 'allowed' to. So I'm going to write my books, my apps and tell my stories.
Black fathers are often disappointed if their sons aren't good at sports. Not excelling at sports as a black boy meant not being cool - even weirder, it meant not really being black.
If you ask a kid what their dreams are, they will give you a list that is as long as I am tall. Once you get older that list gets shorter and shorter, so dreams shrink. I think dreams should grow as you get older.
I've always been interested in creating things for kids.
I feel like kids don't dream big enough. With art being taken out of school, it's important to know you can create as well.
If you play sports, use sports. So many of our kids get used by the game and then get nothing out of it. Use it as a tool to open up other doors that you want to open in life.
I don't club, I don't really go out, and there's a lot of stuff I don't really do socially.
I've always wanted to create. I didn't ever want to just be a football player, so I'm just bringing all these childhood dreams together to try to accomplish the things I want to do before I die.
Creativity is something that is forever.
Everyone is creative, but we are only as creative as we allow ourselves to be.
I have about 3,500 books, maybe more.
A lot of times when you're around really, really smart people, you don't really understand them.
A lot of athletes are first-generation money.
I hate typing but I love to write manually.
I'm just comfortable in front of the camera. I'm like the male Oprah.
I'm not a guy who holds up a product and says, 'Drink this.'
I'm not building gyms. I'm not interested in building football fields or doing football camps. I'm interested in doing film camps and coding camps.
Black boys shouldn't have to feel that being good at sports is the only way to be cool - or to be valued by the world.
As young black boys in Alief, Texas, my friends and I often spent afternoons imagining ourselves scoring the game-winning touchdown at the end of the Super Bowl.
Dreams come true, but dreams don't wait for you. You have to chase your dreams.
I want to be like the Nike or Apple of children's books.
It's so easy to get caught up in the future and in the past.
With 'Dear Black Boy,' I wanted to encourage BIack boys to dream outside of sports and think differently.
I'm trying to be the best dad ever. And being a husband is a whole other business itself.
There aren't many children's books about black characters that are just going on adventures. My library has over 2,000 children's books in it, and most of the protagonists are either white or creatures.
If I write a book, it has to be so awesome. It has to be next level, to prove mysel. Just like if you are an athlete and you want to rap, you better bring the bars. Don't come in with nursery rhymes.
The way we have been programmed and conditioned to think about the black kid being an athlete, it's like every young black boy people would see say 'what sport do you play?' instead of just asking 'what do you do?' 'What are you interested in?'
I always say Coach Trestman reminds me of the first Willy Wonka. Not the Johnny Depp one.
Why does everyone always assume the quarterback is the leader?
I've always been creating, no one had to teach me how to create, I always made things.
