Philippe Coutinho Quotes

It was a big step for me to take, going away from my family to go and play in a different culture, and I understand why people don't do it.

Both of my parents sacrificed a lot. My dad, Tero, would drive me to training every single day. My mum, Teija, came to Seville to help me. She did everything for me. It was such a big place to go at 17. Even if you can speak English, it doesn't matter there. It was all Spanish. They don't do English.

The only time I used to feel like an outsider was when I first went to India.

When I was 18, I left Dublin and moved to Paris. I didn't speak French. I didn't know anyone. I felt like a fish out of water.

Of all the bewildering things about a new country, the absence of human landmarks is one of the most depressing and disheartening.

When I moved to Bombay, it was very harsh. I was nothing like what I am today. I couldn't speak a word of English. In England, people might be very understanding about that, but in Bombay, they're not very forgiving. 'If you don't speak English, how do you expect to work in Hindi films?'

The first season in a new country like England is very difficult.

It's difficult to adapt to Barcelona.

My biggest struggle was probably having to move from the Dominican to the United States to go to high school. Moving to Michigan, the weather, the language, I didn't speak English at all. That adjustment for me was difficult at the beginning.

It was tough moving to Italy so young. You don't have much experience of life, you are leaving your family and everything behind to go to another country and another culture.

I don't think I've been shy in the past. Young and uncomfortable, maybe. But shy? It has become this annoying term that I've been lumbered with.

My worst trait is that I'm an introvert. When I've led stuff, the hardest thing for me to overcome has been my natural desire to run and hide. I'm very proud of the fact that I have been able to do that.

I started acting when I was really young. I came to the States and didn't know anyone, and I spoke with a weird Irish accent.

I remember being chronically shy. I came out of my shell a bit when I went to university, but I'm still fairly shy in company.

When I was 14, I came to school in London. I remember it was very cold, but also having to adjust and become fluent in English.

It is not always easy to change country.

My friends were amazed that I became a TV presenter. I was not a big talker at school - I never liked people seeing my braces, so I walked around with my sleeves pulled over my hands and my hands over my mouth in case anybody saw me smiling.

I was a very shy kid. Very shy. But I started doing theatre when I was six years old, and that really changed something. My more playful side came out of me.

As a young guy I was really shy, more shy than I am now.

It is good for a person who has suffered from acute shyness, as I had, to find that he can cause as much upset as he suffered. Better to be a brute, I thought, than to be a wallflower.

I once wrote that the first week in Jerusalem was the hardest week of my life. I was different, other; my clothes were different, as was my language. All of the classes were in Hebrew - science, bible, literature. I sat there not understanding one word. When I tried to speak, everyone would laugh at me.

It is not easy to arrive in a different country and adapt quickly, but I think I'm getting there, and I'm proud of that.

I'm shy; I work hard.

I didn't overcome my shyness. I am still shy.

I'm Egyptian, and my parents stupidly decided to move us down to South Carolina when I was five, which was pretty brutal.