I think your posing and your onstage presentation is yet another piece of the craft. So anytime you get onstage to show the muscles and show the finished work, that should be looked at with the same kind of respect and appreciation. I'm glad everybody else appreciates it, but I still want to get better.

It's like you have to save your own life, nobody is going to be your savior for you, so we have to do what we have to do, no matter what it is

Bodybuilding is an art, your body is the canvas, weights are your brush and nutrition is your paint. We all have the ability to turn a self portrait into a masterpiece.

In the beginning it wasn't bodybuilding competition that motivated me, it was just getting muscles and getting big. And certainly it has evolved for me since then. I think I'm still evolving.

My understanding about nutrition is not what I'd like it to be, so for a long time my dieting strategy was very crude. It's only very recently that I started to accept different ideas like using vegetables and natural seasonings that don't compromise the sodium and caloric value of the food while at the same time giving it some flavor. I'm still evolving; everybody is or at least should be in bodybuilding.

Bodybuilding has been the tool that single-handedly taught a little black boy from the projects to use his mind to achieve success. it taught me to see things for what they can be. I had 17-inch arms; I imagined them to be 24 inches. The power of my mind allowed me to achieve what I imagined.

They can crack jokes. They can sit back and analyze and criticize and make all the fun they want. But I'm living my life, I'm doing it. What are you doing?