“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.”

I have reached a place in my life where I need to sit down and say, ‘Well, what do I do? What’s best for me?’ I need to look into options for the future.

Swimming is normal for me. I’m relaxed. I’m comfortable, and I know my surroundings. It’s my home.

Any Olympic sport is great to watch.

This is my 20th year in the sport. I’ve known swimming and that’s it. I don’t want to swim past age 30; if I continue after this Olympics, and come back in 2016, I’ll be 31. I’m looking forward to being able to see the other side of the fence.

I’m so sick of the water.

Once I retire, I’m retiring. I’m done.

I know it won’t be eight medals again. If you want to compare me to that, that’s your decision, not mine. I’m going out there to try to accomplish the things that I have in my mind and in my heart.

I want to go to the World Cup. I want to go to the Masters. I want to go anywhere.

The more you dream the more you achieve.

I eat pretty much whatever I want. I don’t have a strict diet. It’s all about cramming in as many calories into my system as I possibly can.

I want to continue the sport of swimming. I’m not going to give up until I think it’s reached where I want it to go.

I think the biggest things I am looking forward to is getting new faces into the sport. Getting kids who could be afraid of water to feel comfortable in the pool.

I think everybody pees in the pool. It’s kind of a normal thing to do for swimmers.

Even in high school, I’d tell my mom I was sick of swimming and wanted to try to play golf. She wasn’t too happy. She’d say, ‘Think about this.’ And I’d always end up getting back in the pool.

I try to separate my personal life from swimming.

I think that everything is possible as long as you put your mind to it and you put the work and time into it. I think your mind really controls everything.

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.

It’s an honor to be compared with Terry Bradshaw. If I could do half of what he did, I’d be very happy.

Live with honor and follow your conscience.