“I don’t really think about the degree of difficulty or the possibility of making a mistake. I just try to relax and let my preparation and training take over.”

I was missing out on public school and going to the football games, prom or homecomings. But I’ve been to three World Championships. So I think it’s like a win-win.

When we had free time in the Olympic Village, we got massages and rested while watching Netflix.

It was a very long and hard decision. My dad kept telling me, ‘You can always go to college, but you can’t always go pro.’ That made sense to me.

I don’t necessarily have favorite brands.

I tune it all out because if I let other people’s stress get to me, then I stress myself out more than I need to.

It’s amazing that I can inspire little kids to know that you can be short or tall, and your body type doesn’t matter because you can do anything.

I make breakfast, which is usually Kellogg’s Red Berries or egg whites, and then I go to the gym that’s only 10 minutes away.

Gymnastics is just one part of my life, and I’m having as much fun with it as possible.

It hurts my head, but it’s fine because it’s something I do every day. You can’t avoid the gymnastics questions.

I didn’t really ever dream of going to the Olympics until after 2012.

I think we have other things to worry about than some Zika virus.

I love competing.

I’m thrilled that I was able to share my first Olympic Games experience with my U.S. teammates.

I am like any typical teenager.

We go to church on Sunday and then have family dinner. My mom usually cooks, and most of the time, it’s protein and something else. She will ask us kids what we want!

When I was younger, I thought every kid was adopted because that’s all I’ve known. I have everything I need, so I never felt the need to have answers for what happened.

Our difficulties launch us into new states of consciousness where we are inspired to step out of the reality of our smallest thoughts and step into the limitless freedom of our biggest dreams.

It’s difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.

To step into acting was not that difficult a transition to make. What was difficult was the work and the practice that went into becoming good at it, because I hadn’t had any training.

Here’s the difficulty about suicide: it is an act of ambition that can be committed only when one has passed beyond ambition.

Faith enables many of us to endure life’s difficulties with an equanimity that would be scarcely conceivable in a world lit only by reason.

The older we become, the more difficult it is to fill our hearts with wonder. Only God is big enough to keep filling us with wonder.

Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.

The thing is, I live a very public life, and I have to keep things personal, or else I have no personal life. It’s very difficult.