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.

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

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

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

You have to be able to be a good loser. You have to be okay knowing you're going to fail every day in something without getting mad and upset.

As a young athlete, it was first about having fun; then it was about winning.

Through everything I've gone through- and I've been everywhere, at the top of the world, in jail, hung over drunk - I never gave up my dream of winning a gold medal in the Olympics.

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

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.

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

Take pride in exactly what it is you do and remember it's okay to fail as long as you don't give up.

You need to become more than one type of athlete. You have to be a sprinter, a weight man and a distance guy all in one.

If you never give up, you'll be successful.

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

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.

I call myself a chameleon.

There is nothing better than having a personal-best day, being in shape and pushing myself beyond my own limits.

As a young child, I was never a crier. I never cried to get my way, or even when I was in pain.

As athletes, we're defined by what we've accomplished. Those are what most people remember and what you get paid for. But I learned more from my failures than from all of my successes put together - failures as an athlete and as a person.

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.

I got interested in decathlon because a coach that I had was a big fan of Bruce Jenner, and he just saw the ability in me - but when it came down to it, I knew my best chance at a college scholarship would be in track and field.

I just love playing so much, competing so much. You're able to put your losses behind you. One of the greatest attributes a decathlete can have is the ability to forget... to look ahead, not behind.

I was a good decathlete until I got with a coach that really knew how to train specifically for the event... I'd really describe it as like being a juggler; you have ten balls and you're trying to get them all in the air at the same time.

I was playing little league baseball when Bruce Jenner was winning the gold but I don't think I was really paying attention at that time.

I've always had to have some kind of failure before I was successful.

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

When first starting to work with someone you try to get them in the same mindset that you were in when you were successful, and I realized the best thing you can ever do is realize that they are not you. They have a different persona and mindset, and you have to figure out what works best within your communication with that athlete.

If it were not for chiropractic I would not have won the gold medal.

Speed is no advantage round a vicious circle.

It had a very good arrangement by Herbie Hancock, but it used existing pieces.

I'm not a downtrodden woman. I just won't be.

I think I will be able to, in the end, rise above the clouds and climb the stairs to Heaven, and I will look down on my beautiful life.

All the faults of the age come from Christianity and journalism. Christianity, of course, but why journalism?

There can be no peace without justice and respect for human rights.

I think 4chan is going to stay the same.

In a play, you know where you start and end and all the stops you have to do, but in television, you can't construct this carefully planned out arc for your character. You often get a script and you're shooting it two days later, and you don't know what's going to happen next. It's one of the harder things that I've done.

I've always had a problem with people who couldn't tell the truth or admit a mistake and say they're wrong.

As a member of Congress, I'm often reminded that in baseball, as in diplomacy, you have to know when to hit, when to run, and when to show grace.

My dad instilled in me a great sense of humor. I wasn't bullied at school because my outward attitude was confident, and that helps.

Although when Christianity appeared the total population of the planet was only a fraction of that of the twentieth century, most of the earth's surface was quite outside the Mediterranean world, Persia, India, and China.

I certainly have a fascination with pop music as a musical form, not necessarily as a lifelong commitment. I guess you could say I'm like a Casanova of music. I can't seem to settle down with one musical form.

C'mon. He'd be embarrassing upstairs at the White House. So I think she'd have a hard time. I think a woman president would have to be very conservative to get elected.

Any rehearsal process - I find, anyway - does have quite an effect on me, and I very much live in that world for the whole period of time that I'm involved with the production. But normally, afterwards with a little bit of space, I can come right back out of it again.

Desperate affairs require desperate measures.

These people abstain, it is true: but the bitch Sensuality glares enviously out of all they do.

I was so anxious to succeed that I made a practice of appearing on all the disc jockey shows I could, in order to publicize the band.

I've learned that most of gay America is coupled up, or looking to be. No wonder gay marriage has such traction. So many of us are already in it, so of course we want the legal benefits.

Punitive murder by the police and by vigilantes has existed in all societies at some point, and probably still exists in most.

Balthazar has a great New York vibe with the accent of a Parisian brasserie. I usually have the corned beef hash with a fried egg on top and wash it all down with Krug Champagne.