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

If you want to be the best, you have to do things that other people aren’t willing to do.

If I didn’t swim my best, I’d think about it at school, at dinner, with my friends. It would drive me crazy.

My mom put me and my sisters in the water to feel comfortable, to have water safety.

I’ve never lifted a single weight in my life.

If I bring back only one gold people are going to say it’s a disappointment. But not too many of them own an Olympic gold medal so if I get one I’m going to be happy.

There are too many kids who are drowning for lack of water safety. That’s something I’d like to do. Teaching kids to live an active lifestyle.

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.

I love the water more than anything. I’m not very good at sunbathing – I get really bored. I love swimming and I love being like a fish and getting in the sea and just – I don’t know, it feels right.

Water was something he loved, something he respected. He understood its beauty and its dangers. He talked about swimming as if it were a way of life.

Everything is grounded in mystery. Everything is swimming, and the stable does not exist.

Failure isn’t in not reaching your goal but in having no goal to reach.

To get ready to climb Everest, I did a lot of hill running with a daypack on and a lot of underwater swimming. I would swim a couple of lengths underwater and then a couple above. It gets your body going with limited oxygen.

I would give the cameras to the kids in the swimming pools and they would play with them, and then I would collect them and we would upload it. If you’re in the process, you’re there.

Thinking about swimming isn’t much like actually getting in the water. Actually getting in the water can take your breath away.

She kept swimming out into life because she hadn’t yet found a rock to stand on.