To a sprinter, the hundred-yard dash is over in three seconds, not nine or ten.

Running is real. It’s all joy and woe, hard as diamond. It makes you weary beyond comprehension, but it also makes you free.

It's like having a pet dog for a long time. You get attached to it, and when it dies you miss it.

Well, I couldn't play an instrument. I'd just stand up front and announce the numbers. They had me sing a little, but that was a horrible mistake. I can't carry a tune in a bucket. We played black theaters and nightclubs all over hell. One-nighters. Apollo Theater in Harlem and the Earle Theater in Philly - That was big time for blacks.

I had four gold medals, but you can't eat four gold medals.

To a sprinter, the hundred-yard dash is over in three seconds, not nine or ten.

It was bad enough to have toppled from the Olympic heights to make my living competing with animals. But the competition wasn't even fair. No man could beat a race horse, not even for 100 yards.