“I like to just think of myself as a normal person who just has a passion, has a goal and a dream and goes out and does it. And that’s really how I’ve always lived my life.”

It doesn’t matter what else is going on. When you walk into your arena or your – whatever you excel at, you’re there to take care of the job that you have to do.

I’ll be working with kids for the rest of my life.

I feel most at home in the water. I disappear. That’s where I belong.

I want to be able to look back and say, ‘I’ve done everything I can, and I was successful.’ I don’t want to look back and say I should have done this or that. I’d like to change things for the younger generation of swimmers coming along.

I believe in God; I’m not saying I’m highly religious.

I am 26 and, and I don’t recover as fast as I have in the past.

For the millionth time, I’m retired. I keep saying it, and people keep answering, ‘Well, maybe he doesn’t mean it this time.’ But I do.

I wouldn’t say anything is impossible. I think that everything is possible as long as you put your mind to it and put the work and time into it.

I want to retire how I want to retire – and I have a great opportunity to do that.

I listen to music before my competitions to get me pumped up. It helps me stay focused.

Every day after I wake up, I think, ‘Wait, this can’t be real; I’m still going to wake up.’

For so long, I looked at myself as literally a kid who was talented who would go up and down the pool. That’s it. Nothing else. Very few people knew who I really was.

I learned how fast you can go from being an international hero to being a reference in a joke on a late night talk show.

I think to be – for me to be an American is – you know, it’s one of the greatest things in the world for – you know, for me just because I’ve been able to grow up with everything. The freedom. You know, in my eyes this is the greatest country in the world.

I live a pretty conservative life, so I probably really haven’t done anything crazy.

People say to me, ‘You’re so lucky. You get to see the world.’ But I don’t. I go to the hotel and to the pools and back again. That’s it.