I'd made it this far and refused to give up because all my life I had always finished the race.

I was a rotten kid. My excitement came from seeing what I could get away with.

To persevere, I think, is important for everybody. Don't give up, don't give in. There's always an answer to everything.

Pain is that last quarter of a mile. You feel it, but when you’re through racing, your whole body just feels elated. So the pain is worth it.

The world, we'd discovered, doesn't love you like your family loves you.

All I knew was that hate was so deadly as any poison and did no one any good. You had to control and eliminate it, if you could.

However dark the night, however dim our hopes, the light will always follow darkness.