Top 60 Sonny Bill Williams Quotes

If a lawyer, if a teacher, if a bus driver, if they’re on $40,000 and they get offered a lot more to go somewhere else, what do you think they’re going to do?

If we’re going to be getting treated like that, why can’t we treat the clubs like that? I just want to see the game and the players looked after the way they should be because the crowds don’t turn up to watch David Gallop play… they turn up to watch the players play.

I want to push myself.

It’s been a long while, but, thank God, now I’ve been able to get my mum a house.

It doesn’t matter what you look like. Experience is the key.

Boxing’s not in my blood… it just grew on me.

There was no way I was going to end up in the scrum when I came to rugby – you know, waste my pretty looks.

Now, I know a lot of things in the big man’s world are not what they seem: a lot of people are out for themselves, and you can’t always trust what someone says.

I thought that if I could play rugby on TV, I’d be able to get my mum a house. That was the driving factor.

It’s not an easy gig, being in the NRL sometimes: you always feel for the boys because you have that mutual respect knowing what they go through.

I like the challenge, week in, week out, of trying to play good, consistent footy.

To win competitions you need a bit of luck and some talent. I think we have some talent on our bus.

If you go about trying to please everyone, there’s going to be endless struggles.

As a league player, for myself, you strive to win a comp. I’m lucky enough to have achieved that… but most sportspeople would love to go to the Olympics, and I haven’t achieved that.

I wouldn’t say I am a businessman.

It was a fairly normal happy upbringing. Not a lot of money, but a lot of love.

I just don’t want to fail, to be honest.

That’s the beautiful thing about being a father for the first time; it has really made me get my concentration levels in check.

I’ve got confidence that I’ll be able to pick it up eventually, but that’s the reason I’m a full-time Sevens player this year: because I knew coming into it that it would be really tough, and I’ve got to give it my all.

If I could go back and change how I left the NRL, I would. My name will forever be tarnished but I wasn’t the man I am now.

I’ve definitely got to look after myself first and foremost.

Every rugby player in Australia and New Zealand or wherever they are from wants to play in the World Cup, and I am no different.

I just used to bank on my athleticism.

I think I’m evolving, I’m always in search of bettering myself, how I can improve as a sportsman and as a person.

In rugby union, I was out wide kicking stones with the pretty boys.

When I first went to rugby, I wanted it all; I just wanted it all, and you know, I thought it was just going to happen just like that, but I’ve come to learn that good things take time.

The thing I enjoy is that I have come to league as a union player, and I have to adapt to different situations I am facing.

I have just fallen back in love with rugby league again.

You always have your knockers. There’s always something wrong. But I’m happy. I think that I’m improving as a fighter; that’s all I can ask for.

I was never going to be a rocket scientist. But I found the field that I was blessed to be able to do, and I just put my whole effort into that.

To be part of something special, to be an Olympian and have the chance to win a medal – it’s an amazing feeling.

I do speak my mind a lot more than when I was younger. I guess that’s just my Polynesian background. That’s how we are: just sit back and try and fit in, try and make everyone else happy.

My old man never used to cook, so we lived on takeaway. The others were always jealous.

You always feel for your fellow players when they are going through tough times, losing and things like that.

We’re so lucky where we live, but we’re so out of touch. Everyone’s mindset is made to feel that refugees are a problem, but it’s more than that. They’re human beings, too. They were forced from their homes.

By the end of my first year at the Dogs, we’d won the competition, and I’d played some pretty good footy.

I didn’t feel that I really fit in anywhere. So when I was young I always had to prove myself through my sporting ability.

It’s pretty tough to play some good footy when your team is always losing.

People have goodness in their hearts.

To be an Olympian – not many people can say that. But first of all, I’ve got to make the team, and I know a lot of hard work is going to go into it, so hopefully it pays off.

Sometimes they are big hurdles, but good players can overcome them. I am trying to do my best.

I don’t have the runs on the board to trash talk anyone in the boxing sense. I’ve got to do it the hard way and earn that respect.

I don’t know if I’m going to be any good at sevens.

The pleasing thing is being able to be in an environment where, even though I’m a rookie, everyone wants to help you out.

My parents were always living from pay cheque to pay cheque. They were always struggling.

I grew up as a Polynesian kid in the Polynesian community, and I was this skinny white kid.

Now I am just focusing on my daughter, my wife, religion, and training.

How can I tell my daughter when she grows up to aspire to be what she wants to be if I am too scared to hop back in the ring because of what some people have said about me?

I’ve had an amazing ride. I’ve been blessed beyond things that I could never have imagined.

Beforehand you think, ‘Oh, changing nappies – I’m going to be up; I need to get sleep for training.’ But when it happens, when you’re there, as soon as you hear a wiggle or a cough or something, you’re up straight away. It doesn’t bother you.

Being a young Kiwi lad, a young Polynesian boy, I was pretty close to my family. But when I moved to Sydney, I went from training twice a week, playing touch footy with my mates, to working full-time as a labourer and training professionally.

I’ve become a true Muslim. It’s giving me happiness. It’s made me become content as a man and helped me to grow. I’ve just got faith in it, and it has definitely helped me become the man I am today.

For myself, it’s trying to do my best in whatever I am doing. At this time, it is boxing; then when I get home, I want to be the best father, the best husband, the best man I can be.

Going back in time, the best sportsmen ever have been Olympians.

I think the reason I hadn’t fought was just the aftermath of the Botha fight. You put so much into a fight, and people just talk about it like it was a bit of a farce or something.

Every time you step out on that field, it’s tough. There is no easy way to approach it and no short cuts out there.

What’s the worst that can happen? I get knocked out. At least I tried.

All I want is respect.

A young fella snuck out on to the field somehow, but when he was coming up to give me a hug, he got smoked by the guard. He was lucky the guy didn’t break his ribs.

I have learned from my mistakes… the business we are in is cutthroat. I have seen too many older blokes give their all for clubs, then be told they are not wanted. Even blokes still on contract are told to look elsewhere.