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

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.

There's no friends like the old friends.

I will never say a bad word about 'One Tree Hill'. The entire shape of my world changed because of that show, so I'll always be very affectionate toward it.

Out of sight, out of mind.

I dropped out of school; I got fired from my job. Those were my roughest moments, but I always knew through it that I was going to be great.

In times of crisis people reach for meaning. Meaning is strength. Our survival may depend on our seeking and finding it.

I am not a big fan of positive thinking. The term suggests that there is something negative that you have to counteract by being positive. That is an artificial duality.

You speak into it and everything is recorded, voice, tone, intonation, everything. You turn a little wheel, and forth it comes, and can be repeated ten thousand times. Only fancy what this suggests.

My father is Swedish and my mother is French.

A little push at the right direction can make a big difference.

Cease trying to work everything out with your minds. It will get you nowhere. Live by intuition and inspiration and let your whole life be Revelation.

My children and their happiness have always been my greatest concern.

Originally, I thought, 'Gollum's such a fantastic character, why are you doing him CG? Surely you need to be able to humanise him as much as possible - he's so full of pathos and real emotion.'

The message from the United States and Europe is that governments must live within their means.

I can't look at things in the simple, large way that great poets do.

Once you get an offer from Steven Soderbergh, you just do anything you can to make it fit.

Little hearts little souls give little lusts big power. Big hearts give little lusts little power.

Lack of encouragement never deterred me. I was the kind of person who would not be put down.

Cartoons have always been an enjoyment to me... a relaxation... I get my ideas from everyday events.

Success is so bad for everybody, period. Especially a certain kind of success, when people practically give up their identity. They forget who they are, how they are.

The history of the Church of Rome is a constant leakage of members into such breakaway cults, which go on splitting.

Basically, my parents messed up because it was the Sixties, and they both had affairs, but they had a great love for each other. I saw that when my father flew over from Los Angeles when he knew my mother was going to die.