If the media didn't know I played chess, there'd be no angle on me at all.

Patience is a part of boxing. After I had missed out on the Olympic gold medal in 1984, a lot of people tried to talk me into turning professional quickly to make money. They told me that the next Olympics in Seoul would be boycotted again, that I was wasting my life, blah blah. But I still had unfinished business. I wanted the gold medal, and I got it in ‘88. Only then was I ready to turn professional.

I come across famous people all the time. It's the respect factor I appreciate. They respect me, they respect what I've achieved and the manner I've done it. It's street credibility. They know where I'm coming from, they know my reputation.

[Kirk] Johnson throws some heavy punches and is a knockout fighter. This is what people want to see. They want to see a fight, they want to see punches and they want to see action.

After about 25 fights you don't always have to keep going to the bathroom before the fight.

Sometimes the image of the intellectual boxer did for me more harm than good. If a boxer has a reputation as an intellectual, some people no longer respect him as a fighter. With me it was always ‘Lennox should react, not think’. But that’s nonsense. Only the guy who controls his opponent wins.

The danger of a closed mind is that it can also leave good things like love, compassion and reason on its outside.