“An ex-girlfriend once got upset when I told her that music is the most important thing in my life. It’s more important than anyone else could ever be. I don’t want to be overly dramatic and say it’s the only thing that gets me up and keeps me going. But people in your life come and go. As you go through your life, you make friendships, you break friendships, you have relationships. Music is the one thing I’ve always been able to rely on. So why wouldn’t it be the most important thing in my life?”

“Going through something difficult in your life, music for me is always a friend and something that helps you to figure things out.”

“Football is the most important thing in my life, but I do have a life outside football and this is one part. The TV, the music, the fashion - it all goes to make up Rio Ferdinand.”

“The most important thing you do in your life is to die.”

“My mother taught me the most important principles, to be determined in life, to be disciplined, to be able to understand that there are some things that you can’t do and other things you have to do, that you always have to be surrounded by love, that you have to be understanding.”

“Finding one important thing in your life doesn’t mean you have to
give up all the other important things.”

“The most important thing to do in your life is to not interfere with somebody else's life.”

“I’ve always felt that anyone who wants to talk about my private life is only demonstrating the paucity of his/her imagination when there are so many more important and exciting things to discuss.”

“The most important things in life are not 'things'.
To me, they are the people, the lives.”

“When my dad died at the end of my sophomore year [at university], I stopped and took stock of my life. There was this real sense that my childhood was officially over. I decided I wanted to be an actor. I knew I was loved as a kid. The thing you can always rely on, your core person, comes from your family's attention and love. When my mother got sick, and I'd see her fight to survive, it gave me an early view of bravery and what life was about. I was able to prepare for it. Your mother dies, and you're eighteen, and you face a choice. Are you going to take drugs? Become a drunk? Or are you going to try to become more spiritual? Why not go with the thing that seems more positive? [pause] Why do I tend to be optimistic? Because the alternative is just crushing to my soul.”