I was living on a loaf of bread a week.

I wore No. 24 at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada - one bib on the back and one on the front - and those are like my medals.

The births of my two girls were wonderful - I felt proud to have helped bring new life into this world.

I've hated poetry ever since I was at school. I include Shakespeare in that. I don't understand the obsession with him!

I always know that people will only remember me for my efforts in Calgary which, I must admit, seem without doubt to have kept the name alive. But I honestly love law and really hope it can take off for me. I'm going for it.

I won't win a World Cup, and I won't win the Olympics, but I'm sure I can compete with the best, and that's what I want to show.

The FIS, BSF, and British Olympic Association have been trying to stop me competing internationally. They don't like the fact that I laugh and have fun and entertain the crowd.

When I trained with the Japanese team, there we'd be singing Oasis songs at the top of our voices at the top of the jumps. People thought we were daft.

When people make fun, it doesn't bother me. I've always enjoyed a laugh.

I think because I'm so naturally happy and unaffected and open, people thought I didn't take the jumping seriously. You're up that high, believe me - you take it very seriously.

People say I wasn't a real athlete, but I trained hard. It's possible to take something seriously and still have fun at it, you know.

Ski jumping is just 10 per cent physical, 90 per cent mental. Some people can't do that. It's not just to do with the fear at the top. It takes a lot of guts to go off the top, but it takes 100 times more courage to jump off the end.

Sport on TV is so boring.

I've fractured my skull twice, damaged a kidney, snapped a cruciate ligament in my knee, and broken all manner of bones, including my jaw. And I count myself very lucky it hasn't been worse!

I was an expert skier who set his sights on going to the 1988 Olympics in Canada to represent Britain, and went from novice ramps to the 120-metre jump in five months. That's possible only with utter focus.

In the right circumstances, terror is good. It makes you focus.

It's not been a bad life, and I do know that I could never have been a world champion. All I ever wanted to do was be the best I could with what I had, which wasn't very much, really. And that's what I think I did.

I was like the George Clooney of the ski business.

I was the best ski jumper in the United Kingdom.

You've got to think life can give you some bad knocks; no matter how hard you're knocked, you've got to get up.

I always say my first job is my building trade. The rest comes and goes.

Once I was making £10,000 for an hour's work, but there have been years where my promotional stuff has brought in only a few hundred.

I don't like bullies or selfishness or people who are grumpy.

I try to keep fit, as it's better for both skiing and plastering. I cycle and jog and I dance a lot - Ceroc, a form of modern jive.

As a child, I was always getting into risky situations with the potential to hurt myself, but mum and dad never stopped me doing what I wanted to do, and they assumed that if I fell and hurt myself, I would learn from that and maybe not do it again.

My mum was wonderful.

My dad supported me by working extra hours and giving me a little bit of extra money. He bought my camper van for me so I could go into Europe and drive from competition to competition.

I'm not frightened of death.

The press portrayed me as a joke and a clown.

I think the only bones I haven't broken are my shoulder, hip, and thigh.

In 1988, I earned something like £700,000. Yeah! I was earning 10 grand an hour opening shopping centres. Yeah! The most I earned in one day was 65 grand. I opened the Alton Towers fun ride in the morning, did a commercial in the afternoon and an appearance at a nightclub in the evening. Sixty-five grand in one day!

My brother is 18 months older than me, and my sister is three years younger. I'm the middle one. I was born in Cheltenham, and that's where I grew up.

I've got two daughters of my own, and I loved watching my children grow up.

If I ever leave, it'll be after winning a championship. You need to go out on a high so that people remember you for the right reasons.

Why change? If you're happy, and things are going really well at one place, there is no need to change.

My first trophy in France was the Young Player of the Year. I was 17. Chelsea is not just one player. It is not only me. We have signed a lot of players. Now we have some good signings like Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa.

You mustn't smile when you lose. You have to be sad like other people. You have to win every game.

We are professionals. We know when we're playing badly, so if you have a poor game, you work in training to put things right so form comes back.

I played without fear. I've done that since I first kicked a ball in my back garden as a five-year-old, whether it's been my first game, my 100th game, or my 500th game.

It never became an obsession for me to score at all costs. I've always said that I'm not a big scorer, I'm a worker.

That's my mentality. Just because somebody has fouled me, there is no reason for me to be nasty to him. I try to respect football as much as possible, and when someone is injured, you put the ball out.

I'm somebody who can laugh even at myself. That happens now and again, when I've made a mess of really simple things.

Out of all the clubs who were interested, I got the feeling that, deep down, Chelsea showed that they really wanted me. There were lots of reasons I came to Chelsea. They showed a real desire to get me to come here. I didn't have to think about it too much.

The Champions League is the one thing missing from my career. When I look at the history of the competition and the people that have taken part, the top, top players have all won it. For many, it is why they have been regarded as top players.

If you told me to choose between family and football, then it is no choice. I take family, of course, like everyone. But I prefer to keep it private, and that's it. I just focus on the football.

At 21, Real Madrid or Barcelona would have been more difficult for me. If I play well enough at Chelsea, I could win my place in the starting team, and my priority is to play.

Chelsea have made a good investment for me, but I did not put any pressure on them.

I know how to make the difference. When I make the difference, I often do it at the end of the match, and that shows that I am fresh.

The FA Cup is something we want to win, but when you play for Chelsea, it is not something you think about a lot because you want to win every game.

You question yourself all the time as a footballer. You have to focus on the positives.