“I have the opportunity to be part of swimming history. To take the sport to a new level would be an honor for me. There’s no better time to try this than now.”

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.

It’s cool just because I’ve had this dream of changing the sport of swimming and it’s finally happening.

I got the stamina. I can close.

My goal is one Olympic gold medal. Not many people in this world can say, ‘I’m an Olympic gold medalist.’

Every sponsor I’ve had has been something that fit my lifestyle, fit my personality.

I want to test my maximum and see how much I can do. And I want to change the world of swimming.

I still remember the days, not wanting to see anybody, not wanting to talk to anybody, really not wanting to live. I was on an express elevator to the bottom floor, wherever that might be.

I’ve been able to get an excitement back in the water.

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.

I think sometimes I guess you see records, say you want to get there and use that as motivation. In a way, it’s kind of cool if there is a possibility to rewrite history and be up there with the greats of Olympic history.

Once I’m already in my room, I still have to open a door to get into my bed. It’s like a giant box. It’s like the boy in a bubble.

I have a lot of goals, but I think that I just want to take it day by day.

The music business can be very cold. And it doesn’t honor its elders.

Then the Lord said, “This is the year of crazy, substantial hope.” Then I saw many sitting around the Table of the Lord whom He was about to address. There was such communion, love, and honor. Then the Lord took His place at the Table.

The Beatles did treat me as a member of the group. And that was a great honor, you know?

I have been both praised and criticized. The criticism stung, but the praise sometimes bothered me even more. To have received such praise and honors has always been puzzling to me.

We need to build a beautiful granite and bronze monument in our nation’s capital to honor American heroes, unsung American heroes. And those unsung American heroes are the rich.

A culture of honor is celebrating who a person is without stumbling over who they’re not.

I am grateful… grapefruit.

Great honours are great burdens, but on whom They are cast with envy, he doth bear two loads.