I believe that the definition of luck is when preparation meets with opportunity.

I wouldn't change my past for anything, because I think it's made me who I am. I'm so enormously grateful for all that I have in my life.

Growing up in a lower-income family, you don't have the resources to make ends meet and you have to find creative ways to get by.

I think writing letters is a lost art, but nowadays it's something that means even more, because it's so easy to communicate in so many different ways. But I find a love letter can even be a little post-it note stuck in your pocket, with a sentence or a few words.

When I was a swimmer and I would lose a heat in something I was doing whether it backstroke or breaststroke, were two of my most strongest strokes, I would look at how whoever it was that won and beat me and think, "What did they do? What were... What were the qualities that they had that I can incorporate into my swimming to make me better?"

I'm very glad that [the death penalty] hasn't existed for many years in the U.K.

Oh, the Places You'll Go!,' by Dr. Seuss, is still one of my favorite books ever.