Bodybuilding is my craft and because it is my craft it dictates how I live. Because it dictates how I live it's not just what I do in the gym but it's also an accepted lifestyle.

The mind is everything. If you don’t believe you can do something then you can’t. If you believe that your upbringing was substandard and therefore you have to walk around as a refugee from that crisis situation for the rest of your life, forever bearing the burden of that experience then that will be YOUR life.

Do not let yourself be contaminated by others' ideas of what is best for you. Cast aside the shackles of destructive thinking.

If you accuse me of being on drugs because I'm very focused on what I do, because I'm very serious, because I'm very hungry, because I can squat 800 lbs, because I can bench 500 lbs, because I can press 315 behind my neck, and if these things don't fit under what you consider to be natural, then I don't want to be a natural. I don't want to be what you depict as a natural. I want to define myself for me.

Champions are an example of what happens when you decide to leave the plane of average thinking, where you dare to dream and you dare to go after that dream, and you make these thoughts and ideas become more than something than just a dream. They actually become a vision.

Your dreams will always be more important to you than anyone else, you can want something as much as you want but at the end of the day your mum doesn't care if your arms are 24 inches or not, but that doesn't mean you give up, chase your dreams.

I feel it is a tremendous compliment to a natural competitor to hear "I just don't believe you're natural," because it means you just look that good.