Almost nothing is presented to you on a silver platter. You have to really work for it.

It's hard work to make a four-minute program look effortless and elegant.

Figure skating is a mixture of art and sport.

When I go out on the ice, I just think about my skating. I forget it is a competition.

Money was never the motivation. It never should be in sports.

I'm the sort of person who needs a big mountain in front of me to climb.

I can't say, 'It doesn't matter if you win or lose.' It's not true. You go in to win.

When I get up, I have a cup of coffee, surf the Internet, then do a half-hour run.

I learned not to depend on other people. I needed support, but it's you who has to go out and deliver.

It's not like I didn't do anything for 10 years and chose a new profession. I've been on the ice a lot. I'm not an outsider.

I was the very first athlete in East Germany allowed to go professional.

I contemplate the impossible and achieve madness. This is my blessing. This is my curse. My heaven, my hell.

Thoughts were zipping around my head like fireflies in a jar, bumping into each other, blinking on and off.

I grew up in Cambridge in England, and my love of mathematics dates from those early childhood days.

Once we meet our children, even for moments, in a place of "I don't know," of relinquished authority, we return to the realms of mystery and magic, where real connection becomes alive again.

A conservative is a man who will not look at the new moon out of respect for that 'ancient institution' the old one.

People do not see that the main question is not : "Am I loved?" which is to a large extent the question : "Am I approved of? Am I protected? Am I admired?" The main question is: "Can I love?

Killed?" said Hagrid loudly, staring down at Harry. "Snape killed? What're yeh on abou', Harry?" "Dumbledore," said Harry. "Snape killed... Dumbledore.

Nothing reaches inside you and grabs you by the guts the way fear does.

To be quite frank and honest with you, it drives me absolutely crazy when my kids fight, the sound of them fighting and not getting along.

One way to remain unfinished is to stop. the other is to go on.