“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 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.

I think goals should never be easy, they should force you to work, even if they are uncomfortable at the time.

There were times I wouldn’t come to practice, because it didn’t excite me. It wasn’t interesting. I was kind of going through the motions.

I consider myself normal. I’ve spent 20 years in the pool. I consider that something that’s normal.

I used to always go to church on holidays, but I don’t go much any more.

I haven’t swam in any of the rivers outside of Baltimore. I try to keep it in the pool.

Growing up in high school, I wasn’t hanging out with friends every day or on the weekends. Doing normal high school kid things was something I was willing to give up.

Silence is never-ending speech. In silence one is in intimate contact with the surroundings. Language is only a medium for communicating one’s thoughts to another. Silence is ever speaking.

When our time expires my love for you won’t.

True silence is really endless speech.

The search “Who am I” ends in the annihilation of the illusory “I” and the Self which remains over will be as clear as a gooseberry in the palm of one’s hand.

The end of all wisdom is love, love, love.

Power may be at the end of a gun, but sometimes it’s also at the end of the shadow or the image of a gun.

Have faith in God and in yourself; that will cure all. Hope for the best, expect the best, toil for the best and everything will come right for you in the end.

Birth is not the beginning, Death is not the end.