When I was 3 my parents put me in gymnastics because I was a bundle of energy and they just didn't know what to do with me! They put me in a Tots class and I just fell in love with it.

As long as you've done your best, making mistakes doesn't matter. You and I are human; we will mess up. What counts is learning from your mistakes and getting back up when life has knocked you down.

Stay strong. Stand up. Have a voice.

I have a chaperone everywhere I go - my mom.

My approach to gymnastics in Beijing was heavily based on the amount of difficulty I could do.

I still can't believe I'm an Olympic athlete.

Gymnastics taught me everything - life lessons, responsibility and discipline and respect.

The body is an amazing machine... If you eat the right things your body will perform incredibly well!

To have any doubt in your body is the biggest weakness an athlete can have. There are times when I physically can't get myself to go for a skill because I'm thinking, 'My knee hurts really bad.'

Image isn't everything, It's what comes from your heart, and what you learn and what you say and how you act that means more than anything.

I don't call them sacrifices. I call them exchanges.

Destiny's what you make of it. You have to face whatever life throws at you.

The way people in democracies think of the government as something different from themselves is a real handicap. And, of course, sometimes the government confirms their opinion.

I personally don't like to go see romantic comedies. But people do want to see them, and they seem to want to see me in them.

I enjoy painting. I don't know if I'm good at it, but I paint. I paint very quickly.

Whenever things go a bit sour in a job I'm doing, I always tell myself, 'You can do better than this.'

Nature is what we know - Yet have not art to say - So impotent our wisdom is To her simplicity.

I've pretty much learned I can let that [being black] hinder me if I want to ... or I can fight for different kinds of roles.

Advocacy groups, politicians, and bureaucrats use the government to advance their private good instead of the common good.

When you burn the chair, you suddenly realize that the chair in your mind did not burn or disappear