I learned early in my career that I had to be prepared for life after football because you never knew when it would end.

After 11 seasons, I retired from football. Four months later I was in Ghana shooting 'Beasts of No Nation' as an executive producer.

I'm grateful for all the teams that I've played for, the fans, the organizations, the front offices, the list goes on and on.

Just to have the opportunity to play in the NFL, I think it's the biggest dream come true for me.

In great Al Davis fashion, he took a reach that he believed in and instilled confidence in me like nobody else could. I was able to become all that he expected of me.

It's really refreshing to get these types of moments when people can say, 'Yeah, you're one of the best.'

I always grade myself hard.

I tell people all the time that football taught me about life in every single aspect.

Even when we were little, we were always helping, going to feed the homeless, community drives, that type of stuff.

My freshman year, I started working with a group called Touchdown for Kids.

I've always felt that I'm successful for a reason - so I can help, whether that's one individual or a group of people. That's why I keep going with football. I love the game and I'll keep playing as long as I can, but ultimately there's a different purpose.

From what I came from, all the negative criticism - that keeps me from embracing that title of being the best. Because I always feel like there is another level I have to get to.

When a team wants you, you can feel it.

Obviously, teams are passing a lot more, and there are rules that... allow the offense to be more explosive, so you want to have as many defensive players and defensive playmakers and defensive backs that you can.

I get friends that ask that all the time, and I remember my mother asking me a couple of times, because there was no action during a game, 'did you play?' It's so weird. Everybody's like, 'Great game, great game.' And because I demand so much of myself, I'm like, 'Well, I didn't do that great, because I didn't have any stats.'

I know so many people who've been through situations where they've gone from one career to another and have had such a tough time because they didn't have any support doing it.

I was really close with Rob Ryan, so I know that Rex, being his twin, would be very similar to him.

It's a difficult thing in this league to match up, to line up and play one-on-one football.

I give my all for the sport, and I just don't like it when, if things don't work out, people say, 'Oh, he doesn't care enough about football.' That was the thing that hurt me the most.

When it's football time, that's where I am - the studying, the working, the practicing, everything.

I know that a lot of times when a guy is making a lot of money and he's not playing up to that caliber, it's like he's just getting his paycheck. That's never been me. That's never, ever been me.

I became stiff as a safety, and so I had to learn to move like a corner and think like a corner.

I think everybody has talents that haven't been tapped into. They can go unnoticed your entire life.

My mind-set is to come in and compete and be the best I can possibly be.

I've had a chip on my shoulder every year that I've played.

Ultimately, the Niners just felt at the end of the day like the right place to be. I was really impressed with the way they run their organization, impressed with the winning, impressed with coaches and players. Everything felt like it was in line.

I get a different pronunciation at least every week. I think the worst one, or the funniest one I got, somebody called me, 'Oh-gooz-man.'

I'll be relentless in my efforts to be great, but I'm realistic. I know I can't be perfect because I've seen it. But at the same time, nobody wants to fail, nobody wants to fail.

You're seen a certain way in the acting world. To them, you're still a football player and not taken as seriously. They think you're just doing it to be a celebrity, to keep your name out there. They don't think you'll prepare.

If we're in a scene together, I want to give you something that allows your performance to be truthful. In football, if you're opposite me, I want to destroy you, take your head off. I'm still reading body language, still reacting, still trusting my instincts - same as football - but it's different now.

I come from a performing family. My parents are Nigerian, and their parents and their parents - and it's all about performance in their culture, you know. The music. The dancing... you're told to stand out at family gatherings and perform in some sort of way. You're just kind of born into it.

I've never gone into a season thinking I didn't have something to prove.

When guys get to a certain age or certain level in their career maybe they don't do as much or work as hard so they start to lose some of that stuff. It's inevitable that at some point your going to lose most of what you've had.

I'm highly critical of myself. There's not something someone else might say that makes me feel I need to be motivated in a different way. I'm a self-motivated guy.

When I speak, the things that I'll say will mean something. And if it's not going to mean anything, I won't say it.

There's a way to speak your mind. You don't just go off and say whatever you feel is right. You have to say what you feel is right and say it if it's something that works for the team.

You always want that as a player, to have that guy on the other side of you that's equally as talented and can make plays. It fuels you a little bit.

I'm always interested in how people, myself included, have ideas of themselves, of how they thought they would be, or of how they want to be seen. And the older you get, the world keeps telling you different things about yourself. And how people either adjust to those things and let go of adolescent notions. Or they dig in deeper.

Woody Allen's movies are so much a part of me. I grew up watching them over and over and would read all his comic pieces for the New Yorker. In some ways, his influence is so much there that I can't even locate it any more.

I'm interested in the way major events don't necessarily announce themselves as major events. They're often little things - the drip, drip of life that changes people or affects people.

I was late to the Knicks. My dad was a big fan. But I first started watching baseball; I became a Red Sox fan. My dad was a Mets fan. I wanted to have my own team and league.

Wes Anderson grew up in Houston, and he and I talk about Manhattan in similar ways, as a kind of fantasy world.

Other people have worked with big studios and maintained control over their movies. I see no reason why it wouldn't work for me.

I like the way corduroys feel. I like the sort of jean aspect of corduroys, but also the texture of them. They probably remind me of my childhood, too, I think. I wore cords, and my dad had a corduroy jacket.

I read all the time. Sometimes I get asked if I've thought about writing a novel.

'The Squid and the Whale' I shot in 23 days. I would have loved more time for it at the time, but in some ways that kind of kamikaze way of shooting was right for that movie.

I used to get up and write every day, even if I wasn't working on a specific thing. Now, when I have a thing I'm in the middle of, I do that, but when I'm not, time can go by when I'm not writing at all.

It's kind of major, learning to drive. I feel like it kicked up other stuff in my life.

We expect forty-year-olds to have grown up at some point, and to be engaged and adult and take responsibility, and doing nothing would seem to go against that.

It's nice being friends over a period of time with people whose music you like so much, or other filmmakers, seeing people change, go through trials.