Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be.

There are as many reasons for running as there are days in the year, years in my life. But mostly I run because I am an animal and a child, an artist and a saint. So, too, are you. Find your own play, your own self-renewing compulsion, and you will become the person you are meant to be.

Happiness is different from pleasure. Happiness has something to do with struggling and enduring and accomplishing.

To make your life a work of art, you must have the material to work with. The race, any race, is just such an experience.

The true runner is a very fortunate person. He has found something in him that is just perfect.

No matter how old I get, the race remains one of life's most rewarding experiences. My times become slower and slower, but the experience of the race is unchanged: each race a drama, each race a challenge, each race stretching me in one way or another, and each race telling me more about myself and others.

I will not last forever. But I am damn well going to know I have been here.