I wouldn't say that there's ever been an Olympic champion that didn't deserve to win an Olympic Gold Medal.
The mind is pretty powerful. In skating, you learn to click into that zone and focus not necessarily on what you're doing but if you're doing it well.
For man, as for flower and beast and bird, the supreme triumph is to be most vividly, most perfectly alive.
I'd challenge myself to see how long I could go without a fall - on beam, I once went three weeks.
I was raised into the Romanian Orthodox culture by my parents, and most notably my mother, who is a profoundly religious and spiritual woman.
Bird has to fly with their own wings; we have to think our own thoughts, find our own destiny.
A champion owes everybody something. He can never pay back for all the help he got, for making him an idol.
I'm lucky to have very good genes. My mother was so tiny she was almost bird-like, and my father was tall and lean. Both lived until their early 80s.
Every time I decide I want a child I get another pet. I have 3 dogs, 13 birds and 3 horses, what does that tell you?
In my country, at that time, being a champion of chess was like being a King. At that time I was a King - and when you are King you feel a lot of responsibility, but there is nobody there to help you.
They didn't have college scholarships for women. Had they done that at the time, I may have stayed on for another two Olympics, but the opportunities were not available to women that they have today.
I helped put in a rink in Cadillac, Michigan, when my wife was very healthy. She helped them put it in and the rink is going full-bore the last time I was there.
The way to know about championship quality is to learn from champions, and that I did; studying them with professional purpose during my time in the ring and from habitual interest afterward.
I am often criticized for spending too much time off the ice, but if you were in my shoes, you'd see how necessary it is.
Even when I was No. 1 in the world, I was taking it one match at a time. I never was a player to look too far ahead, the way draws can pan out.
I think that everything is possible as long as you put your mind to it and you put the work and time into it. I think your mind really controls everything.
By the time I was 10 or 12, I had discovered the lure of the romance genre - and the dusty copy of 'The Thorn Birds' on my parents' bookshelf.
Everyone has obstacles, and you're not going to have the right answer or do the right thing every single time.
Thanksgiving was always a favorite holiday for me. The preparation was fun! My grandma and I would walk to the butcher on Jamaica Avenue in Queens, order the bird, and buy all the fixings at the market.
If someone lies, well, you had a choice to trust that person or not. I think the way my father raised me, well, he trusted everybody. And that worked for him.
T-Bird: Somebody stuck his blades in all his major organs in alphabetical order.
