The weather is perfect. The gods are shining on us.

To put it another way, Michael Jordan was a gym rat.

I think he had a wake-up call. It's a different kind of race, and I think maybe he didn't take it quite as seriously as he might have, but you can bet he learned a lot of lessons.

You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can't know what's coming.

I admire runners older than I - they are now my heroes. I want to be like them as I grow older.

You have to know your body. It's part of the beauty of the training process, and once you've determined how much your body and mind can take, you can then begin to reach your potential.

Running a marathon is just like reading a good book. After a while you're just not conscious of the physical act of reading.

Yes, winning the gold medal was undoubtedly the biggest day of my career - mostly because I won the way I had prepared to run it. It was a totally satisfying experience.

A good athlete always mentally replays a competition over and over, even in victory, to see what might be done to improve the performance the next time.

Why couldn't Pheidippides have died at 20 miles?

Be willing to move forward and find out what happens next.

There is something you can do that nobody else can do

The road to Heaven is ascension

I might do 'X Factor' next year. It's looking good that I won't get the sack at Christmas.

Bush said the unemployment situation is turning around. Last week alone, 5,000 people started working for John Kerry.

All religions try to benefit people, with the same basic message of the need for love and compassion, for justice and honesty, for contentment.

Life, after all, should go forwards, not backwards.

I thought about starting a novella club because it seemed less ambitious.

People forget that actors are actors, who are looking to put on the clothes and the character, and then shed it just as easily.

All this machinery making modern music can still be open-hearted. Not so boldly charted, it's really just a question of your honesty.

I'd like to see you move up to the goat class, where I think you belong.