I was passionate. I found something that I loved. I could be all alone in a big old skating rink and nobody could get near me and I didn't have to talk to anybody because of my shyness. It was great. I was in my fantasy world.

I wouldn't say that there's ever been an Olympic champion that didn't deserve to win an Olympic Gold Medal.

I always had the sense that nothing was never good enough - striving for perfection. My mother and I had a sort of typical mother-daughter relationship.

My parents didn't have a lot of money, but we never knew that. They really did the best they could.

I wanted to learn how to skate backwards and they wouldn't help me and they went off and left me on my own.

In my teen years leading up to the Olympics, I loved having the excuse to skip out on parties because of skating. Partying wasnt my thing anyway. Mostly I hung out with other skaters. We were all buddies, so its not like I missed out on socializing. I was really enjoying myself.

Every time you go out on the ice, there are slight flaws. You can always think of something you should have done better. These are the things you must work on.