When you do hard routes, you have to try hard. They're not easy routes. You have to give everything you have. You have to get totally animalistic. When you're super pumped, I have to yell to bear down. [...] It's like martial arts. When Bruce lee threw a punch, he had to mean it. Haahhh! Like that. When you're doing a hard move, there is this excess energy you have to let out. Air explodes out of you.

That's what's so amazing about climbing - it's not just a sport. It's a lifestyle, it's a way of being creative, of connecting with yourself and with nature.

I love finding something. For me it's not just about the athletic challenge, it's about finding new things. When I'm not doing that in climbing, it manifests itself in other ways. There's the athletic side of it, but it is very much an artistic thing.

For me now, I feel that climbing is a part of who I am. It's my way of life. It's my way of expressing myself. My way of being in the world. In the past, I questioned it a lot. Now it's obvious. This is who I am. This is what I do.

I think I'm a pretty creative person. I love building things. I love working on my house. Landscaping, stuff like that.

With climbing you can go to the most beautiful places on the planet and practice. Anywhere there is rock, you can climb.

There's so many things to explore in life, and if you don't have that inspiration or motivation to do it, then don't force yourself. Take that time to do whatever else you need to do. That inspiration or motivation will always come back and when it does, it's always stronger.