Quotes from Michelle Kwan

What I love the most is getting on the ice and just popping in a fabulous CD and skating - all by myself, the rink completely empty, just me and the music.

As an athlete, I've always been very proud to represent the United States.

If you represent your country and millions of people are watching, it comes through a lot of grit and hard work.

As I've gotten older and grown more independent, I think for myself, and that's how it should be.

I always thought after 2002 that I'd hang up my skates and turn professional and just go on tour and do shows. But I don't know when it is enough. I mean, I still enjoy it. I'm the luckiest girl alive that I get to perform in front of thousands of people, do what I love doing.

I want to see how far I can train. I have to see how far my body will go.

There's a lot of emotions that always come out after a skate of a lifetime. I always start crying because there is so much buildup to that competition.

Looking back, I feel very fortunate to have had such a long career. Many skaters end their careers in their early 20s. I had the opportunity to go to two Olympic Games - almost three after being the alternate in 1994 and then in 2006 being injured.

You see figure skaters fall all the time. It's the way you pick yourself back up and keep going.

Skating has given me so much that it's priceless.

I would just love to be able to give back to figure skating.

In figure skating, you have four minutes to do your best. It's your time; you do your best.

Even at a young age, when you start to do well, it's tough because it's lonely on top, and I wasn't the most popular.

The Women's Sports Foundation has empowered so many young girls and women across the U.S. I benefitted from WSF with a travel and training grant when I was 12 years old. It really helped my family financially.

I look back at 1993 or 1994 when I made it to the National Championships, and I was on used skates and handmade or borrowed costumes. But my mom was there every step of the way for me: she was the one traveling with me all over the world at age 13.

If you ask another competitor, they may tell you they felt very competitive towards me. But I can tell you that my biggest competition was myself. There's only so much you can do, right? There is only so much energy that one has. My focus was on how do I get the best out of myself.

The biggest lessons I learned were probably the times where I had the biggest setbacks and the biggest challenges - when I had the biggest jumps forward and lessons learned.

When I was younger, I always dreamed of being a legend, to be remembered in figure skating.

To be the best, you need to be the most well-trained and well-prepared athlete you can be. The pressure is going to be all around you. You just have to make sure that your body and mind is fine-tuned. Then you go out there and do it.

Skating takes up 70 percent of my time, school about 25 percent. Having fun and talking to my friends, 5 percent. It's hard. I envy other kids a lot of things, but I get a guilt trip when I'm not training.

You can always say, 'I wish I had landed that triple flip better, or I wish I didn't fall.' They're not regrets, just mistakes.

I was improving in the sport at age 10, 11, when I was getting my triple jumps - and it was suddenly very isolating. I was doing really well in competitions, and it felt strange because people that were my friends became almost jealous.

When I look at the kids training today ... I can tell which ones are going to do well. It's not necessarily the ones who have the most natural talent or who fall the least. Sometimes it's the kids who fall the most, and keep pulling themselves up and trying again.

Maybe I didn't get new skates, but I got used skates. I made it to the national championships in used skates that were custom-made for another girl. I still have those skates. Underneath the arch, there was a name crossed out and my dad had 'Michelle Kwan' written in. Granted, they were a little big, but it worked.