“No way did I ever think I was going to win the 100m.”

I can understand how evolution says, “don’t believe in God”, but I’ve never had this problem.

My parents always encouraged me and I had a good home life. We were always taught to respect things and other people. It’s so different today, because children are just not taught the right way.

I don’t concentrate on things I can’t do. I do what I can do.

You’ve got to stick at a thing, a particular thing, until you succeed.

I always felt free when I ran. I suppose that’s what was good about it.

I realized from a very early age that God gave me a gift, and that gift was to run, and I wanted to use it to the best of my ability.

I feel that’s the only way to succeed – by concentrating on something in particular. Once you know what you’ve got to do you will succeed, you will succeed.

My salvation was a free gift. I didn’t have to work for it and it’s better than any gold medal that I’ve ever won.

Everything I did that required effort, I opened my mouth. Even to catch a ball, I opened my mouth.

Self-censorship is insulting to the self. Timidity is a hopeless way forward.

For my 20th birthday in March, I’ll buy myself a present for doing my best. A one way ticket to Tokyo. All I need is my guitar and a pack of cigarettes.

Today the search for a new global order is under way.

I think my stance and my way of life is my most important art.

Concentration is a way in which we are actually directing or guiding or controlling our experience. Meditation is letting go of control, letting go of guiding our experience in any way whatsoever. The foundation of True Meditation is that we are letting go of control.

If there’s the right condition, I always want to express the concept or ideas in a very independent way.

Everyone felt like they knew Ray Charles and in a way they did, because he was embodied by his music.

Through my work and ways of expression, I strive to engage in dialogue with the society that I am living in.