"It's about working when nobody's watching."

"I was a dyslexic kid."

"I always thought everybody else was better than me."

"When the time comes for your brain to process the information, the second word comes up faster than the first one. So when it's in your head, all of a sudden, it comes out backwards and you think of the word backwards."

"Our mission for younger people is to do our best to make exercise cool, hip - the thing to do."

"Nobody has milked one performance better than me - and I'm damned proud of it."

"It caused more problems as a young kid, because the simple process of perceiving words on a piece of paper was hard for me. Many people think dyslexic people see things backwards. They don't see things backwards."

"If you're asking your kids to exercise, then you better do it, too. Practice what you preach."

"If you are dyslexic, your eyes work fine, your brain works fine, but there is a little short circuit in the wire that goes between the eye and the brain. Reading is not a fluid process."

"If you are a kid, reading is really important stuff."

"I was growing up in the 50's and 60's. Back then they didn't even know what dyslexia was."

"I thought everybody else was doing much better than I was."

"I still have nightmares about taking tests."

"I didn't only have a perceptual problem, I was also so nervous and so upset. The process just didn't work. I lost enthusiasm for school and I flunked second grade. The teachers said I was lazy."

"First of all, I try to be a positive role model."

"If you're going to dedicate every second to winning the decathlon, what are you doing wasting your time in bed?"

"I always felt that my greatest asset was not my physical ability, it was my mental ability."

"Speed is more important than endurance in the decathlon."

"I have always actually been with and attracted to very strong women, and I think I've learned a lot from them."

"I'm very laid back, easy. There's nothing better in life than seeing your kids do well."

"It's one of the hardest things in life - choosing your own name."

"I am from the Kardashian group. We can take anything."

"We put so much pressure on kids to excel in school at such a young age."

"Waving the flag at the 1976 Olympics wasn't my idea. It was too much apple pie and ice cream. Not that I don't love my country, but I felt it was my victory up there, I put all the time into it."

"I spent twelve years training for a career that was over in a week. Joe Namath spent one week training for a career that lasted twelve years."

"My greatest gift in life was being dyslexic. It made me special. It made me different. If I had not been dyslexic, I wouldn't have needed sports."

"If I were to compare the Olympic decathlon to fatherhood, I would say fatherhood is a lot tougher."

"It hurts every day when you practice hard, but when this decathlon is over, I got the rest of my life to recuperate. Who cares how bad it hurts?"

"I have struggled with identity all my life. It's not like something that just happened last week."

"I got into sports because that was a way to prove your masculinity. I was good at it."

"The biggest problem with dyslexic kids is not the perceptual problem, it is their perception of themselves. That was my biggest problem."

"You don't go out and change your gender for a "television "show, O.K.? It ain't happening. I don't care who you are."

"Some people look gender non-conforming because they want to look that way - they don't want to conform to society's expectations."

"Being a celebrity is a business."

"The hardest part about being a woman is figuring out what to wear."

"I have found that women have so much unleashed power that they don't really utilize because they don't have confidence in themselves about who they are and what they can do."

"The only thing I did is, I wore the same pair of socks in every decathlon I was ever in."

"Start early and begin raising the bar throughout the day."

"There's nothing more, nothing better in life to wake up in the morning, look at yourself in the mirror, and feel comfortable with yourself and who you are."

"Sexuality is who you are personally attracted to... But gender identity is who you are in your soul."

"I'm just going to go live life. I'm going to go enjoy life. I have nothing left to hide. I am kind of a free person, a free soul."

"Life wasn't easy growing up; it was frustrating. If I had been a better reader, then that would have come easily, sports would have come easily, everything would have come easily, and I never would have realized that the way you get ahead in life is hard work."

"I learned that the only way you are going to get anywhere in life is to work hard at it. Whether you're a musician, a writer, an athlete or a businessman, there is no getting around it. If you do, you'll win - if you don't, you won't."

"If I wasn't dyslexic, I probably wouldn't have won the Games. If I had been a better reader, then that would have come easily, sports would have come easily... and I never would have realized that the way you get ahead in life is hard work."

"Gamble, cheat, lie, and steal. Let me explain: Gamble for your best shot in life - dare to take risks. Cheat those who would have you be less than you are. Lie in the arms of those you love. And finally, steal every moment of happiness."

"I had a lot of conversations with my family, my close friends, with my pastor, with God, and kind of came to a revelation that maybe I should be honest with myself about who I am and let that person - this woman who has lived inside me for my entire life - finally have an opportunity to live."

"Decathletes have to train for every event: sprints one day, field events the next. You pump up to make yourself strong enough to throw? Try pole vaulting at 250 pounds. There are 32 guys in most decathlons, and they're in 32 little track meets."

"So many people go through life, and they never deal with their own issues, no matter what the issues are - ours happen to be gender identity. But, how many people go through life and just waste an entire life 'cause they'd never deal with themselves to be who they are."

"In the fifth grade I discovered something I could do better than the other kids. One day, the teacher set up a bunch of chairs, and she had everyone run to the chairs and back while she timed us. I had the fastest time in the whole school!"

"The truth is everybody does it from time to time. People dial telephone numbers and they get a wrong number only to find that they've read the last two digits backwards. Everybody does it, but dyslexics have this tendency to a higher degree."