I think what my parents did was perfect. They were strict, concerned about my safety and held me back just a little.

The decathlon includes ten separate events and they all matter. You can't work on just one of them.

It really means a lot that I won the gold medal - but I woke up the next morning expecting to feel different. I felt the same.

I always know where the scissors are.

And there is such a thing as a decathlon high. It's like a rock rolling down hill, picking up momentum. You get better and better.

It took me time to realize that the men who won Olympic gold medals in the decathlon are just men, just like me.

Try everything, because you're never sure what you're going to be great at.

To me, the decathlon is its own little society and I am part of that culture.

When I was little, I wasn't allowed to put sugar on my breakfast cereal because it made me so hyper.

Breaking the world record in '92 was a very special personal moment, but I'd say my favorite moment as a decathlete was winning the Olympic gold medal.

It's important for me to think I'm mixed-race.

If you ask an Irishman for directions, he might be quick to answer, Well if I were going there, I would not start here.

Yoga is nothing if it is not perfect harmonyof the body, senses, mind and intellect, reason, consciousness and self. When all these are integrated that is true yoga.

I have always been a reader; I have read at every stage of my life, and there has never been a time when reading was not my greatest joy

Words will not fail when the matter is well considered.

In a democracy sovereignity is vested in a majority; and a majority is not only, at best, an ignorant, foolish and emotional mob, but shifts continually and alters from year to year.

My dad and all my family were into baseball. His brothers, my mom's brothers, my mom's father. Baseball was just always a part of our family.

I'm so excited [to be Miss USA]. It's a dream come true.

It isn't until you begin to fight in your own cause that you (a) become really committed to winning, and (b) become a genuine ally of other people struggling for their freedom.

I have become convinced that if God stands a child before you, for even just a minute, it is a divine appointment.