I can relate to anyone. I can hang out with stoners, skaters, surfers, stockbrokers, lawyers, athletes, rappers. I feel I can hang out with any group of people and find common ground to talk with them.
I'm so secure in myself I couldn't care less what people think of me.
When someone becomes successful or rich and famous, people perceive that person as being different. But I'm the same guy I've always been.
You can be born into a musical family and have an ear for music but being technically gifted, be it playing an instrument or songwriting, takes years to get good at. So for me, I'm excited to start over, and yeah, I have a few talents I can build off of. But I see this as a long process; it's a marathon.
I was this 5-7 pudgy kid in high school... I wasn't a popular kid. I was an outcast.
We speak for the entire Giants organization when we say that there is no place in society for hatred and bullying against anyone.
I just write mechanical things.
I think in the bullpen you can tell during your warmups, if you have a good feel for it. But anything can happen once you get into a game. Sometimes you just wind up throwing it better than ever before one day without knowing why.
I'm OK being the veteran, but I'm still just a kid.
I can count my friends on one hand.
Regardless of what you want to call it, guys need some type of spirituality they can grab onto. If it's Christianity, which is a very structured approach, or if it's something that's a little more open-ended... like, Zen's something you can make yourself a part of. You can interpret it for yourself, like Taoism and stuff like that.
Big league defense is going to get outs most times.
Meyer and I have a bit in common because we're both left-handed. I think it's great that he seeks out that advice because he's not too "cool" or too uncomfortable to ask for it.
I need to have perspective. That's one of the big things former players told me, to not try to live up to anything, just live up to yourself.
Everyone focuses on the earthly state, but how cool might death be? I believe in spiritual rebirth, and I can't wait to experience that.
Some people pray to a totem pole, some people pray to a sun, some people pray to a god. It all works for them. It all comes back to what you think.
I'm not trying to be cocky, but I set such a high standard for myself. I'm not happy when I pitch seven innings and give up two runs and get a win.
I view my pitching on how confident I was out there, period. And if I lose that confidence, I can become a prisoner of my own mind.
I think I'm aware of what goes on in my mind more than some guys, and for that reason I fight more battles.
It would be great to just be able to ignore everything and pitch to a spot, to suppress the intellect and let the intuition take over.
We're all physical bodies, but basically everything we do is determined by what goes on in our heads. The only person who ever stops me from achieving something is me.
When I'm doing well, it's like I'm in a nice little ballet. Everything is going slow all around me. It's very peaceful.
There's a part of me that wants to go streak and run outside and jump around and go swim in the ocean and do everything. The other part of me wants to bear down and repeat this kind of performance next year and in the years to come.
It's not like I'm some kind of veteran and there is this huge age gap. I identify with them more off the field. I need to set an example, which is great, and I look forward to doing just that.
I looked up to my father when I was 7 and 8. I believed it was my calling to be in the big leagues. I'd been raised by a family that always told me I could do anything I wanted.
