Quotes from Diana Nyad

You have a dream 35 years ago - doesn't come to fruition, but you move on with life. But it's somewhere back there. Then you turn 60, and your mom just dies, and you're looking for something. And the dream comes waking out of your imagination.

There's so much boldness in living life this way, and we did it all, and no one can take it away from us.

All of us suffer difficulties in our lives. And if you say to yourself 'find a way,' you'll make it through.

The spirit is larger than the body. The body is pathetic compared to what we have inside us

The mantra I used was 'find a way.'

I've never been in any pain, ever, like that in my whole life. Now it's set me so far back, I just don't' have the lung capacity to swim the way I can.

There are some days where I'll eat 8,000 calories per day, on a day before a 12, 14, 18 hour swim. For a 61-year-old woman, that's a lot! And I try not to eat too much refined sugar - cookies, desserts, those sorts of things.

I grew up in Florida, so you start swimming at the age of 1, really. By 10, I was competitive swimming, and by 12, I had aspirations to be the best in the world.

I think I'm going to my grave without swimming from Cuba to Florida.

For previous generations, swimming the English Channel was the feat to accomplish. And that's been done.

I have an uncompromising relationship with my goals.

It's not too late, I can still live my dreams.

There isnothing greater than touching the shore after crossing some great body of water knowing that I've done it with my own two arms and legs.

I think 60 is when many people hit their prime. We elect many of our presidents in their 60s. At that age, people are full of ideas and their best self. I wanted to dig into my potential and bring out my best self.

The highs were high, the awe, I'm not a religious person, but I'll tell you, to be in the azure blue of the Gulf Stream as if, as you're breathing, you're looking down miles and miles and miles, to feel the majesty of this blue planet we live on, it's awe-inspiring.

If you want to touch the other shore badly enough, barring an impossible situation, you will. If your desire is diluted for any reason, you'll never make it.

Swimming is probably the ultimate of burnout sports.

I wanted to teach myself some life lessons at the age of 60 and one of them was that you don't give up.

But for each of us, isn't life about determining your own finish line?

I am overwhelmed by the strength of my body and the power of my mind. For one moment, just one second, I feel immortal.

The integrity and self-esteem gained from winning the battle against extremity are the richest treasures in my life

I swam. We made it, our team, from the rocks of Cuba to the beach of Florida, in squeaky-clean, ethical fashion.

Swimming is probably the ultimate of burnout sports. It's ironic because millions of people who swim as their regular exercise love the meditation aspect of it; you don't wind up with any orthopedic injuries. But when you swim at a world class level for hours and hours - the loneness of the long distance runner.

From age eleven to age sixteen I lived a spartan life without the usual adolescent uncertainty. I wanted to be the best swimmer in the world, and there was nothing else.