My actions and reactions, and the way I treated certain scenarios, were way out of line, so I deserved some punishment.

[A 2005 response to doping allegations] Unfortunately, the witch hunt continues and tomorrow's article is nothing short of tabloid journalism. The paper even admits in its own article that the science in question here is faulty and that I have no way to defend myself. They state: 'There will therefore be no counter-exam nor regulatory prosecutions, in a strict sense, since defendant's rights cannot be respected.' I will simply restate what I have said many times: I have never taken performance enhancing drugs.

I've given gifts in the Tour de France and it's come back to bit me. So no gifts.

I've committed to surfing the rest of my life.

What makes a great endurance athlete is the ability to absorb potenial embarrassment, and to suffer without complaint. I was discovering that if it was a matter of gritting my teeth, not caring how it looked, and outlasting everybody else, I won. It didn't seem to matter what sport it was-in a straight-ahead, long-distant race, I could beat anybody. If it was a suffer-fest, I was good at it.

How many times do I have to say it? … Well, it can't be any clearer than 'I've never taken drugs.'

My mother told me...if you're going to get anywhere, you're going to have to do it yourself, because no one is going to do it for you.