In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.
As an athlete, I hope we can remain focused on the Olympic spirit which celebrates achievement in sport by peoples of all nations.
If I had never won a single medal, I'd still be skating in a rink somewhere. There wouldn't be an audience or camera flashes or autograph seekers, but I'd still be skating.
I love skating. I love the speed, the power, the excitement, the feeling that --- even for just a moment --- I can defy gravity and fly through the air. And I love the way that a great skating performance, like any work of art, can move an audience to laughter or tears.
A really important part of competition is coming back, trying to do it better the second time than you did the first.
When a skater steps on the ice to compete, the nerves, the tension, and sheer suspense of that moment make for great drama.
I have to consider my greatest accomplishments winning the Olympics because everything that Ive done after that is really because of the Olympics.
Ideals survive through change. They die through inertia in the face of challenge.
The really important questions in human life are hardly touched upon by psychologists. Do liars come to believe their own lies? Is pleasure the same as happiness? Is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved, or not to be able to love?
I learned how but I have a terrible paranoia and fear. I do not drive an automobile.
You are a side effect," Van Houten continued, "of an evolutionary process that cares little for individual lives. You are a failed experiment in mutation.