People refer to 'the good ol' days', but I don't know what they're talking about. As someone who's battled cancer, if I lived more than 20 years ago, I'd be a dead man.

Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.

My mom was such a strong character. I don't want to say she was like a man, but she was tough.

We have unrealized capacities that sometimes only emerge in crisis.

But, listen, Eddie Merkyx would have won six Tours if he hadn't been punched.

Cycling is so hard, the suffering is so intense, that it’s absolutely cleansing. The pain is so deep and strong that a curtain descends over your brain….Once; someone asked me what pleasure I took in riding for so long. ‘PLEASURE???? I said.’ ‘I don’t understand the question.’ I didn’t do it for the pleasure; I did it for the pain.

A boo is a lot louder than a cheer, if you have 10 people cheering and one person booing, all you hear is the booing.