I was more interested in skating and the girls and traveling than I was in calculus.

The only disability in life is a bad attitude.

And the fact that I liked to show off and be the center of attention really lends itself to figure skating very well.

Male figure skating is different than female figure skating; we're not America's sweetheart.

And so figure skating was a great vehicle for me to kind of be competitive at something, without having to be big.

The high road is always respected. Honesty and integrity are always rewarded.

Half of figure skating is opinion, convincing judges.

Adversity, and perseverance and all these things can shape you. They can give you a value and a self-esteem that is priceless.

Most other competitions are individual achievements, but the Olympic Games is something that belongs to everybody.

I don't want to look back-I want to keep looking ahead. I'd hate for my defining moment to be my past.

Everything that I've ever been able to accomplish in skating and in life has come out of adversity and perseverance.

When you have been just told that the girl you love is definitely betrothed to another, you begin to understand how Anarchists must feel when the bomb goes off too soon.

The bad, icky and stinky things that happen sometimes should never be allowed to have an adverse effect over the good, lovely and beautiful things happening everyday.

I am concerned for the security of our great Nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within.

Language is an impure medium. Speech is public property and words are the soiled products, not of nature, but of society, which circulates and uses them for a thousand different ends.

I mean I think that's a fact and I think that we had a very peculiar type of Catholic Church here in that it was a fortress Church.

I'm incredibly neurotic and a control freak. I like the thought that if there's going to be anyone to blame it's going to be me.

I say, ‘You should blanket me’ or ‘you should blanket her’, meaning like a blanket is a blessing. It’s a way of showing love and caring.

It’s an artist’s job to show people the world they live in. We hold up mirrors.

I was fair-skinned in a country that's about the outdoors.

I have to write because if I don't get something down then after a while I feel it's going to bang the side of my head off.