I lived on the top of one hill and the school was at the top of another hill. Nobody ever went to school by car - we didn't have any cars during the war. So that to and from school was itself a training.

My family actually lived in the same village for about 400 years. They had great stability until the last century. People lived and intermarried in small villages.

The human spirit is indomitable. No one can ever say you must not run faster than this or jump higher than that. There will never be a time when the human spirit will not be able to better existing records.

Beating John Landy was my defining race.

We run, not because we think it is doing us good, but because we enjoy it and cannot help ourselves

Mothers, unless they were very poor, didn't work. Both of my parents had to leave education. My mother had to work in a cotton mill until 18 or 19, when she took some training in domestic science.

If a man coaches himself, then he has only himself to blame when he is beaten.