Quotes About Dedication

It took me sixteen years to write.

I made about fifty-four dollars a week and spent it on two flying lessons every week at the age of sixteen and was able to get a license then pretty early and knew that that's what I wanted to do, some kind of a career in aviation. I did know about space flight, but at that point, it was still pretty far out there.

Between sixteen and eighteen, I was singing anywhere I could, in bars or down at the pub.

Every poem probably has sixty drafts behind it.

I write everything I do. On the average, it takes you about sixty months from the first molecule of an idea to it being in front of an audience. I'm actually somebody that creates their own stuff.

The Olympics are just different. I'm not sure why; the pipe's the same size, the board you're riding is the same, you're competing against pretty much the same people. But the Olympics is the Olympics, and I know it's a really big deal.

But size isn't everything - effort and intensity is, especially in the fourth quarter.

I want to be interested in the music I make until I die. That's more important to me than the size of my audience.

We made drawings the size of a whole quarter of a room ceiling, which we would then send on to the model makers. I did this every day for two years. Even now I can draw cartouches with my eyes closed.

I track my food, so it's easy for me to see what I'm eating, and if I want to push myself and get into great shape, I'll just cut down on portion sizes.

A different type of human has to play that sport. Hockey players keep fighting - nobody cares what's wrong with you, as long as you have one foot to skate on, you keep playing.

People would ask me why I was doing what I was doing - but I always told them that I just loved to skate. There was no other explanation.

So for me having that element of being able to be competitive wasn't a problem. I'm very competitive. I thought if I could skate first, acting would come second. I could say my lines and then go do what I was saying. You don't have to fake it, you're not really acting.

I don't even need to do anything; I am always amped to skate. Always amped to be competing. I love competing - that's what I do. Any contest, it doesn't really take much. Just get me on the course and I'll get going.

I aim to skate as clean as possible.

I want to be the top man in our sport. I want to be that guy everyone wants to see skate.

I wish I could skate every single day.

Any chance we have to skate for another Olympic medal, it's amazing.

All I wanted to do was ride skateboards - I wanted to be a professional skateboarder. But I had this problem. I kept breaking half of my body skateboarding.

I love skateboarding and rollerblading, but I'm not really allowed to do it because of my tennis.

Even though skateboarding is considered a sport now and it is going to be in the Olympics for the first time, you always have to realize what got it there and what's going to always be important.

Initially, I wanted to be an ice skater, but then when I was 13 I saw Bye Bye Birdie, and that was it - I wanted to be on Broadway.

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.

Ever since I was a younger skater, I've been working my way to these big jumps.