Tim Howard Quotations

When I was 11, I developed a new symptom - the worst one yet: I had to touch people before I talked to them. When I say 'had to,' that's exactly what I mean: if I didn't touch them first, I literally couldn't form the words.

I think there's a lot of things that need fixing at Manchester United apart from David Moyes, but in this business, you also realize the head coach is always going to be the first to go, unfortunately.

You want to be wanted, and you want people to rely on you.

Every old goalkeeper loses a step at some point, but you can gain that back through experience.

Sure, I like ice cream, but when you keep a healthy lifestyle, it's: Do you prefer sweets and crappy food, or do you prefer to have a nice body? It depends on what you want more.

When you play professionally, you get accustomed to turnover. Players come and go - they get injured, they get transferred, they get cut from the team. Coaches are hired, and coaches are fired. It's just part of the world you live in.

I've made plenty of mistakes as a keeper, that's for sure. I'll make plenty more before I'm through.

Today, I am blessed to be living a dream. And yet, if it all went away tomorrow, I know I would still have peace.

Manchester United could have any goalkeeper in the world. I was a 23-year-old kid from New Jersey who, from an early age, had to cope with Tourettes Syndrome, a brain disorder that can trigger speech and facial tics, vocal outbursts and obsessive compulsive behavior.

My faith helped me stay grounded in defeat and victory, to not get too excited about the successes and too low about the failures.

In the end, very little gets in the way of what Manchester United wants to do.

I try and tell all the kids that I meet that hope to be amazing one day and be a professional athlete or a doctor or a lawyer or whatever they want to be. I tell them they can do all that because Tourette's won't stop them.

If I woke up and didn't have Tourette's syndrome, it would feel weird - not better or worse, just different.

Winning is fun, but those moments that you can touch someone's life in a very positive way are better.

Sometimes you just give everything you have, and you do your absolute best, and it doesn't stack up.

There are very few young goalkeepers who play at the top level. Most goalkeepers figure it out as time goes on.

When I see someone wearing fur, I just want to sit them down in front of one of PETA's videos and show them just how badly animals suffer for this supposed fabric that no one needs.

I think part of being in the public eye is getting recognized and dealing with positive and negative scrutiny.

My mom broke the mold. She put my brother and I first, always, and worked her fingers to the bone trying to provide for us. She taught us right from wrong and gave us very strong morals and values and belief in family, things that have stayed with me.

I've been fortunate enough to be headstrong, to be full of self-belief, and those things have never wavered for me.

Pressure can be good. It helps you to see what you're all about.

I wanted to be a soccer player; I wanted to do it at the highest level.

I'm on television, ticcing and twitching. I think that's kind of cool.

As soon as things get serious in front of the goal, I don't have any twitches... It's probably because at that moment, my concentration on the game is stronger than the Tourette syndrome.

I think I have some ideas on coaching, but listen, coaches work harder than players. The hours they put in, the headaches that they have. That's the one thing I've never liked about coaching. They have all the emotion, passion and preparation without actually getting to be able to dictate what happens.

OCD is an anxiety disorder, one that brings conscious intrusive thoughts and compulsions - 'Touch the bannister. Pick up that rock. You'd better do it, or something terrible will happen.'

Right now, as I've gotten older, my tics sustain for five or ten years. So, I can deal with them on a daily basis; I know how it affects my body. But when you're 10 years old, and every three months a tic comes along, it's daunting because you don't know what the next one is going to look like, what it's going to feel like.

I don't feel the need to be seen, to be glorified in any way.

I don't get a lot of time with my children. My time is precious, and time with my two kids is like gold dust to me. I can't get that time back.

I grew up in a generation when there was no soccer on TV.

I grew up a Michael Jordan fan; that was my first idol. But my true sports idol was Deion Sanders: he was the person I always wanted to be. I wanted to play two sports professionally, which would never happen, but to me, that was every kid's dream.

Sir Alex Ferguson is one of the best managers in football history.

I enjoy being a role model for kids.

I don't sign autographs when I'm out for a meal or out with my kids. I think that's rude and disrespectful. I would never ask anyone for an autograph while they were eating dinner; that's what I was taught by my parents.

He was terrific at state last year. His time in the finals was about 3 seconds faster than his previous best. I'm really expecting a lot this year; he set me up for that with his performance last year.

I am grateful for the willingness of both Jurgen Klinsmann and Everton manager Roberto Martinez to afford me the opportunity to spend time with my kids.

I'm a gym rat; I love my hour-long afternoon sessions with my trainer.

My personal trainer suggested paleo to build muscle while staying lean, and it's one of the first plans that's worked for me.

Sponsorships and marketing are oftentimes pretty short-lived. From a company's standpoint, they're often not looking to do tremendously long contracts. They're always trying to catch the next big thing.

I think you hope, throughout the course of your career, if you do things right often enough, you might get a moment in time that you can do something special.

I wasn't a troublemaker. I wasn't impertinent. The teachers liked me. But year after year, the comments on my report cards basically came down to a single point, and it was 100% accurate: I seemed to get nothing whatsoever out of all those long hours spent in the classroom.

Three mornings a week, I exercise before eating - it's called 'fasted cardio' - to burn fat.

The President doesn't ring people out of the blue, so you know you've done something well.

I was a pretty popular kid, and I participated in every sport.

When you're not needed somewhere, it never feels great.

When there's a cup involved it becomes that much more important. For us, we're not bothered what anyone says. Put a ball out there, put 11 versus 11, and we want to win. It doesn't matter what the competition is.

There is no privacy in our culture anymore, so I have to try and carve that out for myself, but I'm OK with it.

Confidence is on one side of the line, and self-belief is on another. People all think those are mixed up.

When you play against top players, sometimes you can play - you can play your utmost and you still get beat.

I started playing soccer at age 6 and played both outfield and goalie. Back then, no one wanted to go on goalie - coaches would make deals with me so I'd do it. It's a tough position as a kid.

You get 15 minutes of fame, I hear, and I've had 14 minutes. The clock's ticking.

We all need God in certain ways, you know. And I certainly fall short in a lot of categories. And it's at those times that I need much more help than most.

Sometimes I tic or twitch or cough, and it's a very public thing.

As an OCD guy, I find change difficult.

Protecting animals is very important to me, and I think speaking out against fur is an amazing cause.

Sometimes it's even hard to tell the difference between a tic and a compulsion. But while tics stem from an urge in a specific part of the body - either completely unconsciously or through a premonitory sensation that's satisfied only by the tic - OCD bubbles up as conscious thoughts in the mind.

This bog walk is individualized sections of floating dock, if you will. It allows trail users to get right out into boggy areas they would otherwise be unable to go (to) except during freeze up.

In July 2011, U.S. Soccer announced that they'd fired Bob Bradley and hired Jurgen Klinsmann as head coach. Jurgen had once been a world-class German striker; now he was regarded as a successful, if controversial, coach.

I'm an old dog; I don't get too excited. I don't get caught up in all the mass hysteria.

I'll be on a beach somewhere when I'm 40.

I had the offer to write books plenty of times during the early stage of my career, and I always kind of just pushed back because it wasn't the right time.

If Jurgen Klinsmann thinks that the best way for his team to be successful is if his young players go to Europe, there is nobody in the world who can argue with that. That is his opinion, whether you agree with it or not.

I knew I wasn't going to play for the NBA.

If you qualify for a World Cup and expect to get an easy group, you are in the wrong sport. It doesn't work like that.

David Moyes is someone I'm forever indebted to.

David Moyes was one who, at a certain crossroads in my career, he was there. And since then, I've kicked on. That's why he played such a big role in my career.

It's important that I'm a role model and that the companies that I associate myself with feel the same way about their own images. Those are companies I'd like to be associated with.

I like to get more than my normal 10 hours of sleep nights before a game.

If you told me to sit in a room, and you had a million dollars cash stacked right there and said, 'Don't move, don't twitch, don't do anything,' without a doubt, the million dollars would be mine.

If there is a less likely sight on this earth than Clint Dempsey, the Texas trailer-park kid, doing downward-facing dog poses, or the stalwart Michael Bradley deep breathing through a tree pose, I have yet to see it.

His leadership comes in the form of - at practice - he's there to work and to learn.

He's very interested in doing this right and doing it well. Greg is very focused and works very hard to get his strokes right. He's always asking for coaching and doing things on his own to learn and get faster.

I don't really get too high or too low. I think when you have a big tournament, that's the important thing: managing emotion.

The most important thing in my life is Christ. He's more important than winning or losing or whether I'm playing or not. Everything else is just a bonus.

I try not to and I don't think I ever have just jumped at any opportunity because a company wanted me. Just because there was money on the table doesn't mean that I took it.

It's easy to just go out and buy a $200 piece of clothing. The real challenge is finding it for half that.

There's a tacit understanding among clubs that a good player shouldn't miss out on the big break of his career or a chance at exponentially improved earnings.

Stay humble, stay grounded, remember what got you to that level-and that’s hard work.

The most important thing in my life is Christ. He’s more important to me than winning or losing or whether I’m playing or not. Everything else is just a bonus.

And yet, if it all went away tomorrow, I know I would still have peace. That probably sounds crazy to most people, but that’s the kind of peace Christ gives. It is rooted in His love, and it surpasses all understanding.

It will take a nation of millions to hold me back.

Fur only looks good on its original owner. Be comfortable in your own skin, and let animals keep theirs.

When the whistle blows, I’m completely exhausted, physically and mentally. I get in the locker room and I sit down and I just exhale. Finally, the danger is over.

I think we have more athleticism, I think we have more pace and that's going to be important to deal with Ghana.

Good keepers sniff out attacks whether with the feet or a throw out.

Some goalkeepers are really sexy with their feet. I have a little sexiness with my feet, but I don't like to bring it out.

I want to do things in my community, get out of the public eye, just be normal. You get your 15 minutes of fame, I hear, and I've had 14. The clock's ticking.

A mother's example sketches the outline of her child's character.

The most important thing in my life is Christ,

No, we discuss it as fans. When we see the game, we talk about what we thought was a call or a foul or no foul. We just have to deal with that in the game. There's gonna be plenty more of those. Referees are humans, so it's not a problem.