I don't linger on the fact that Dawn Fraser was a great swimmer 40 years ago. That was in the past. I did break 41 world records, but I don't live on that today.

We only have two things that we share in this life; we are born and we die. And what we do in between those times, we've got to be happy. I don't let the outside world deter me.

Make yourself an example, achieve it, but don't hurt anyone on the way up. I don't think I did that.

I've always believed that the desire must come from within, not as a result of being driven by coaches or parents.

The Olympics remain the most compelling search for excellence that exists in sport, and maybe in life itself.

It's a beautiful thing, diving into the cool crisp water and then just sort of being able to pull your body through the water and the water opening up for you.

I probably have a different mental approach to swimming than most people. I actually enjoy training.

I knew that the stronger that I was, the faster I was going to swim, and thats all I had in my mind at the time, was I wanted to be the best swimmer in the world.

If you're good at it, you can win.

I've worked hard all my life.

I can remember crawling through the window where he was in the hospital... He said, 'You have a gift... keep training for me.' I s'pose those were the last words he ever spoke to me.

Nothing is not only nothing. It is also our prison.

Let's all wise up. Some of us aren't fighting the fire; we're playing with fire. Flirting with the devil. Stop it! Stop it now before all hell literally breaks loose.

I love the casting process. It's a cliché but I think it's the most important part of the process. I really enjoy it too. I love putting that jigsaw puzzle of people together.

You know what 'DOUBT' stands for? It stands for 'Debate On Understanding Bewildersome Thoughts.'

You should never be so high and mighty you can't listen to somebody else and learn something from them. Leadership is as much about using the ear as using the mouth.

President Obama has made maternal health one of the core priorities of U.S. international aid funding.

The United States in particular and the West in general should be feeling a little embarrassed about all that lecturing we did to the Third World.

You're at your best when you don't know what you're doing.

On stage, I'm me. I'm a husband, I'm a dad, I'm a guy, I'm a mess - but I am a cohesive thing that you recognize as one human entity saying these things that he generally believes.

Everything and everybody is sooner or later identified, defined, and put in perspective. The truth as always is simultaneously better and worse than what the popular myth-making has it.