What do you do after you are world-famous and nineteen or twenty and you have sat with prime ministers, kings and queens, the Pope? Do you go back home and take a job? What do you do to keep your sanity? You come back to the real world.

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I ran and ran and ran every day, and I acquired this sense of determination, this sense of spirit that I would never, never give up, no matter what else happened.

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Sometimes it takes years to really grasp what has happened to your life.

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I don't know why I run so fast. I just run.

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I loved the feeling of freedom in running, the fresh air, the feeling that the only person I'm competing with is me.

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Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose. Nobody goes undefeated all the time. If you can pick up after a crushing defeat, and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday.

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I tell them that the most important aspect is to be yourself and have confidence in yourself.

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I don't consciously try to be a role model, so I don't know if I am or not. That's for other people to decide.

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My mother taught me very early to believe I could achieve any accomplishment I wanted to. The first was to walk without braces.

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I can't' are two words that have never been in my vocabulary. I believe in me more than anything in this world.

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