Thirty-six years after coming to America, the man once known by fellow body­builders as the Austrian Oak was elected governor of California, the seventh largest economy in the world.

Almost anything difficult, any challenge takes time, patience, and hard work.

Everything that I've accomplished in life was because of America and because of California, so I should take seven years out of my life to be a public servant and to serve the people of California regardless of the lack of pay.

My body is like breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I don't think about it, I just have it.

Create a vision of who you want to be, and then live into that picture as if it were already true.

You can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent.

As a kid I always idolized the winning athletes. It is one thing to idolize heroes. It is quite another to visualize yourself in their place. When I saw great people, I said to myself: I can be there.