I wanted to live, but whether I would or not was mystery, and in the midst of confronting that fact, even at that moment, I was beginning to sense that to stare into the heart of such a fearful mystery wasn't a bad thing. To be afraid is a priceless education. P 99

There comes a point in every man's life when he has to say: 'Enough is enough.'

I take nothing for granted. I now have only good days, or great days.

I guess if I looked at it from an athletic standpoint, I don't really need to win another Tour. Seven Tours for me was a dream, six broke the record, so that eight doesn't really mean much.

I can get up in the morning and look myself in the mirror and my family can look at me too and that's all that matters.

If life gives you lemons, drink the juice in order to mask the presence of performing-enhancing drugs.

Cancer taught me a plan for more purposeful living, and that in turn taught me how to train and to win more purposefully. It taught me that pain has a reason, and that sometimes the experience of losing things-whether health or a car or an old sense of self-has its own value in the scheme of life. Pain and loss are great enhancers.