My first bat was a Duncan Fearnley 405, size two. I was aged about four. I loved that bat, such great memories. I gave it to a family member and never saw it again.

I have a short, home-made armguard because I don't like the regular ones. I'd wear that on a lively pitch. I don't use a chest guard because I find it too restrictive.

Michael Vaughan gave me his old thigh pad when he retired. It was in my kitbag for a long time.

The dressing-room environment is very difficult to replicate, camaraderie is very important.

There is nothing wrong with being gay.

Sometimes people say things on the field that they might regret, but they should stay on the field.

I wouldn't say I give the hairdryer treatment but when we've not performed well you have to make people aware.

I was pretty much a goody-two shoes at school - a bit boring, didn't get in trouble with teachers - it was classical Yorkshire: a lot of respect to your elders. Once I started playing cricket that sort of slipped away.

I think I can be quite cheeky at times.

I can remember that 2005 Ashes as a kid and being really absorbed in that whole series at 14 years old. It was magical.

Every player wants to see the game grow and flourish so it would be great to be able to help do that by achieving something very special.

In the past, I found myself on occasions not playing the game at the speed that suits me. I need to make sure I'm in control of what is going on out there as much as I can.

I have been given a fantastic opportunity to captain the Test side and will continue to work very hard at doing my best at that.

It's tough to take, losing the Ashes. It's bitterly disappointing.

You are not going to win many games if you start behind.

Every game against Australia matters.

We have to be prepared to play some attritional cricket at times.

Time has never really been an issue in Test cricket, especially in the modern game where things naturally move quicker than they have in the past.

You don't win games by batting long periods of time.

You're always trying to find ways of getting guys in positions in which they will be comfortable.

All we can do as players and ambassadors of the game is try to set an example, playing in the right way and make it as entertaining as possible for people watching.

I want to make contributions that help us win Test matches rather than put us in positions where we have to play extremely well to win.

To score runs you have to be pragmatic.

The important thing is to stay very strong with my natural game.

Coming out of the Ashes in 2013-14 and the World Cup in 2015 I realised how much I wanted to be a force in international cricket.

You learn from the mistakes you make.

This game can be brutal. As soon as you get comfortable, it bites you. You have to stay on it all the time.

Every now and then you might have to change things around. It's not something that is good to do a lot - especially with your batting - but every now and then, I don't think it's a bad thing.

There's always things you want to get better at and learn from but that's something that's quite hard to instil in players.

You try to make sure you have respect for the opposition but still play to win and play hard cricket.

I'm just trying to score as many runs as I can each time. The more I can make over a hundred, the better.

Amateurs do tactics, experts do logistics, as we learn in the military.

When there's no light at the end of the tunnel, it's hard to keep things going.

One answer to transportation infrastructure funding is public-private partnerships.

Our 21st-century world is an incredibly dangerous one. Between brutal civil wars, violent extremism, spreading autocracy, rising inequality, territorial expansionism, election interference, and nuclear proliferation, our policymakers have their hands full.

The Democratic Party has been perceived to have a deficit of credibility on defense issues since the Vietnam War, unfairly or not.

During my years in the Navy and in the White House, I was involved in assessing how a war with Iran would go. In summary: It would be ugly.

When all Americans believe that the people we elect deserve to be in power, that their conduct in office is worthy of respect, and that they can be held accountable for their decisions, our politics will finally be worthy of our great people.

In the Navy, I slept mere feet from a nuclear reactor, so I have no knee-jerk opposition to traditional reactors.

In the military, we just don't leave fights.

At the end of the day, Israel is its own self-determining government.

For a public option, I voted for that when I was in Congress, and the Senate couldn't stand up to the health insurance industry and took it out.

Look, it's no longer about capacity, how many ships, how many air wings, how many battalions. It's about capability. If we dominate cyber space and know and can read the other guy's mail, and with a very accurate laser-guided munitions put it in this window or that window, it's not how much, it's knowing exactly where to pinpoint a target.

I don't look at Israel through the prism of running an election.

For far too long we have continued to mark our military prowess by the size of our forces: believing that numbers of ships, planes, and brigades is what most matters - just like during the Cold War.

I'm a guy that verifies before he trusts.

I believe we should be investing in the potential of nuclear technology based on thorium, to end the use of plutonium and lead to much safer nuclear power plants, less toxic nuclear waste, and less opportunities for nuclear weapons proliferation.

The citizens of this nation gave us - my wife and I - a health care plan that saved our daughter's life.

Trump is not the problem. He is the symptom of the problem where Americans no longer believe that the system works for them.

Executive privilege is nowhere to be found in the Constitution, and thus is a very limited principle.