"For a time, I was a national hero. But then I came home, and I was just another colored man."

"I always loved to run. It was an escape."

"We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort."

"The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself - the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us - that's where it's at."

"My family was so poor that I didn't get to wear shoes until I was 7 years old."