It is the brain, not the heart or lungs, that is the critical organ.

Our house was bombed, and the roof fell in. We were sitting under the stairs of the basement, and we were quite safe, but it brought home the realization. In two nights 400 people were killed in small town.

My athleticism was really the core to social acceptance, because in those days the overwhelming number of students came from more of a public school background than I did.

It seems quite impossible to walk in America.

Beating John Landy was my defining race.

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.

Every time I ran the mile I was aware of my own weakness, there was some opponent who could give me a hell of a fight, so I never went into a race with a sense of invincibility. I always had that feeling of fragility and nerves which made me run faster.