In terms of my career, having the gold definitely changed my life. The Olympics are different, you know? They're every four years and it's such a small group.

I don't know how many people really knew who I was before the Olympics and that's the fun thing of the Olympics - you get to know someone who captures your heart, hopefully.

Every day, someone realizes a dream. I believe dreams help light our darkness and give us the push we need to move across the rink of life.

I'd try to channel my nervous energy in a positive way into strength and endurance. It didn't always work.

At 6 years old, the ice became a place for me to express myself. Because I was so shy off the ice, it became my safe haven, with music and freedom and self-expression. That was my emotional outlet.

I'm always looking for inspiring ways to stay motivated and stay active.

Once you have a child, your heart is forever outside your body. I totally understand that now.

Being an athlete, you know how to train and prepare your body for a performance and you're able to do it under pressure.

I never wanted to feel I hadn't worked hard enough.

As a teenager especially, I just wanted to do my thing and not be noticed.

I feel like I missed out on the regular high school social life, but that's the way I chose to be.

What lies before us? Horrible thoughts arise in my heart. If we had died before today we should have been happy.

What I find most injurious to mankind in modern advertising is the constant appeal to material standards and values, the elevating of material things into an end in themselves, a virtue.

One should never be where one does not belong.

Nobody notices it when your zipper is up, but everyone notices when it's down.

Unfortunately it makes the unambiguous determination of triplets by these methods much more difficult than would be the case if there were only one triplet for each amino acid.

I woke up and all I could see was Iraqis standing all around me, looking down upon me. I knew at that moment something terrible had happened and I wasn't in the right place.

When you boil war down or all conflict down to two people, its a great advert for humanity sometimes. People can find connections with each other, regardless of the bigger picture.

I remember when I was very young, I read an article by Fats Domino which has really influenced me. He said, 'You should never sing the lyrics out very clearly.

It's tragic what America has become because there is a great segment of society that now resents luxury and success and achievement by others.

Great groups deliver great results. And for everyone involved in a great group, great work is its own reward.