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

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.

Yes, I am Algerian of Moroccan origin through my parents, but all my life is Algeria. I was born there.

My parents were amazing people who had no business being together - and they knew it.

We're parents first, and once you have kids, everybody knows that you have priority lists. Number one is your family and everything else just kind of finds its place.

The education of my brother and myself was of paramount importance to my parents, and in addition to their strong encouragement, they were prepared to make any sacrifice to further our intellectual development.

I belong to a specific category of writers, those who speak and write in a language different from that of their parents.

My sister and I were born in San Francisco. When our parents died, we came down here to live with relatives.

The young always have the same problem - how to rebel and conform at the same time. They have now solved this by defying their parents and copying one another.

It's up to each person's parents whether they think it's too frightening or too violent, how much their kids can handle, what they want to teach them, what they want to show them.

I'd hope to reach any kid who feels apart from the group - those who seem to be outsiders, who feel different. Kids who want to reach their parents often don't know how to do so.

That other saying, I'm a part of all that I have met, I think that would have to begin with my wonderful parents back in Atlanta when I was a youngster five years old I was tongue tied.

I have parents come up to me and say, 'I don't know who you are, but my kid wants his picture taken with you.'

Parents are like shuttles on a loom. They join the threads of the past with threads of the future and leave their own bright patterns as they go.

Parents should watch what their children watch and not use TV as a babysitter. If a show is objectionable they should turn it OFF. They should write the president of the network and tell him they are never going to watch that program again and why.

I received my parents' permission and went into the Navy on June 3, 1941.

I'm doing naughty things, I'm drinking too much, I'm going to clubs. It really didn't matter to me, other than the fact that some parents wouldn't let their kids hang out with me.

Parents were invented to make children happy by giving them something to ignore.

My dad was born in Chicago in 1908... his parents came from Russia. They settled in Chicago, where they lived in a little tiny grocery store with eight or nine children - in the backroom all together - and my grandmother got the idea to go into the movie business.

Parents know how to push your buttons because, hey, they sewed them on.

I always wanted to make sure my parents didn't have to work again for the rest of their lives.

I saw my parents as gods whose every wish must be obeyed or I would suffer the penalty of anguish and guilt.

Growing up, mostly in Montreal, I was an only child of loving parents.