Athlete Quotes

Remember when I told you about the American dream? That if you worked hard enough and tried hard enough and kicked yourself in the butt, you'd succeed? Well, I think I did, I think I did.

People try to make a Greek tragedy of my life, and they can't do it. I'm too happy.

It was so difficult for the fans to understand my problems with baseball.

If you destroyed the underpinnings of this great American sport, you are a hated, ugly, detestable person.

I'm a human being I'm not a piece of property. I am not a consignment of goods.

I'm a child of the sixties, I'm a man of the sixties. During that period of time this country was coming apart at the seams. We were in Southeast Asia. Good men were dying for America and for the Constitution.

I'll also say, yes, I think the change in black consciuosness in recent years has made me more sensitive to injustice in every area of my life.

I'd often wondered what would I do if I were ever traded, because it happened many, many times.

I was told by the general manager that a white player had received a higher raise than me. Because white people required more money to live than black people. That is why I wasn't going to get a raise.

I was leaving probably one of the greatest organizations in hte world at that time for what was probably one of the least like, and, by God, this is America.

I lost money, coaching jobs, a shot at the Hall of Fame.

Customary though it may be to write about that institutionalized pastime as though it existed apart from the general environment, my story does not lend itself to such treatment.

But I want you to know that what I'm doing here I'm doing as a ballplayer, a major league ballplayer.

Baseball regards us as sheep.

And I'd be lying if I told you that as a black man in baseball I hadn't gone through worse times than my teammates.

All the grand work was laid for people who came after me. The Supreme Court decided not to give it to me, so they gave it to two white guys. I think that's what they were waiting for.

Baseball was socially relevant, and so was my rebellion against it.

When I was on the ice, in the lights, with the music and the motion, there was a certain kind of flirtation that gave great energy and expressiveness to my performance.

We wanted to be achievers, but being an achiever didn't mean that you stopped being a woman.

Then came the choreography... the impact of music and choreography tends to really emphasize an overall feeling of what you really want out of the program.

The world went by, and we didn't get caught up in all the other things, because we didn't have time. We had no spare time. It was always thinking about training and focusing on what we wanted, our goals.

The first thing is to love your sport. Never do it to please someone else. It has to be yours.

Skating was the vessel into which I could pour my heart and soul.

My sport taught me what I could do with my talents, whether in the rink or in the rest of my life.

In 1968, in the midst of the tumultuous 1960s, the Olympics were much more than just another event.

I think skating helped me find myself.

I really loved what the guys were doing more than anything, how high they jumped, how effortless it was.

Giving life to music through skating was something I wanted to be known for.

As a young child, I played the violin. I think that that started the spark.

When the going got tough, I really had to draw on many of the same competitive instincts I did when I was skating. I really had to put my head down and stay positive. I had to fight.