Quotes from Mirai Nagasu

Figure skaters are usually young and then just fade away. But I'm not a fade-away kind of person.

I have always believed that I am an amazing skater regardless of what the results say, and I think that determination and confidence has kept me in the game so long.

I have always believed that I've been an amazing skater regardless of what the results say.

A long time ago, a sports reporter wrote that I wasn't strong in the free-skate, that I was more of a short-program skater. And that bothered me because I work so hard every day just for a person to judge me on a couple of bad skates and deem me a bad free skater. That's absurd!

I started skating when I was five years old in Pasadena, California.

Education is more important than skating. I want to keep up with my schoolwork and my skating.

I don't necessarily always feel happy when I'm skating.

I sometimes think about adult skating and how, you know, people like Midori Ito, she competed at the adult world championships. I feel like I'll probably be someone like that.

My parents always tell me that they never would have let me start if they had known how expensive and difficult figure skating is.

My Olympic moment from the individual event was that I was really able to enjoy my skating, and so that meant a lot to me, and I didn't portray that accurately.

My dad usually never has time for my skating, which is OK because they have to make a living somehow. For them to put their business on hold and come all the way to Korea to watch me skate - especially my dad - he feels responsible not just for my mom and for himself, but there are a lot of people who work there, too.

Japanese people, they're not really one to complain.

Pre-competition rituals include nap time, because when competition rolls around, I'm a sloth. I also FaceTime my dogs.

Sports are evolving and always evolving, and people have that determination to keep going and coming back. I think I'm one of those athletes. I stand to show that people shouldn't give up. You've got to just keep going until you succeed.

Although there's a stigma that you learn only until a certain point, and then you just maintain, for me to learn the triple axel at 24 goes to show that anything's possible.

I made history here by landing the first triple axel for a U.S. lady, third at the Olympics, and that's a big deal.

I'm a solo skater; the sport can be lonely.

It was really, really heartbreaking to not be named to the team in Sochi, but some things are just not meant to be. That experience changed me as a skater. I took a step back and decided that some things are not worth accepting. I wanted to be on another Olympic team. I took time to evolve myself as a person and as a skater.

Michelle Kwan was an inspiration for everyone, including me.

When I was in middle school, I remember thinking, like, Tara Lipinski was 14: I only got a few more years to go before I'm really old.

A lot of people know me for my speed and my flexibility. I like to jump, but I'm not really the best jumper. I'm more of a spinner.

Narcissism is just self-confidence.

There are moments when I think I'm not very smart and not very pretty, and skating is the only thing that stands out about me. It's like the love of my life. When you love someone, sometimes you want to break up.

It was hard for me to leave the nest, but my mom is super proud of me. She said, 'You became independent really quickly, and I'm so proud of you,' but she misses me all the same.