Lance Armstrong

Lance: I don't discriminate – on anything. I like women who are hotter than doughnut grease.

Lance: First and foremost, I think the biggest inspiration in my life now and the biggest inspiration to this decision is my children. They are the ones that make it easier to suffer, but they are the ones who have told me that it's time to come home. And so without them, none of this would be possible.

Lance: I can get up every morning and look at myself in the mirror and my family can look at me too - that's all that matters.

Lance: If there's one thing I say to those who use me as their example, it's that if you ever get a second chance in life, you've got to go all the way.

Lance: (on Cheryl Crow) I still love her. I still have a lot of respect for her. I was blessed to have two-plus years with a great lady. It's amazing to be around her and how normal she is.

Lance: It's nice to win. I'll never win again. I may have to take up golf -- take on Tiger [Woods].

Lance: Without the illness I would never have been forced to re-evaluate my life and my career. I know if I had not had cancer, I would not have won the Tour de France.

Lance: I am happy with the way my career went and I am happy with the way it ended.

Lance: If you consider my situation: a guy who comes back from arguably, you know, a death sentence, why would I then enter into a sport and dope myself up and risk my life again? That's crazy. I would never do that. No. No way.

Lance: I figure the faster I pedal, the faster I can retire.

Lance: Birthdays don't really matter much anymore ... for me, I sort of have a new birthday and that's October 2nd, the day I was diagnosed [with cancer], ... the day we all sort of look to and mark these milestones by one year, two year, five year, 10 year. Hopefully, I have a 50 year.

Lance: To all the cynics, I'm sorry for you, ... I'm sorry you can't believe in miracles. This is a great sporting event and hard work wins it.

Lance: Winning is about heart, not just legs. It's got to be in the right place.

Lance: I don't lie to people. I don't need to lie. I've never been so at ease with my relationship with the press, my relationship with people, because I know I've been completely transparent. That's purifying. That's beneficial.

Lance: To be afraid is a priceless education.

Lance: I rode, and I rode, and I rode. I rode like I had never ridden, punishing my body up and down every hill I could find....I rode when no one else would ride, not even my teammates.

Lance: I take nothing for granted. I now have only good days or great days.

Lance: I become a happier man each time I suffer.

Lance: I hate losing at anything, whether it be cards, golf or whatever.

Lance: Cancer is my secret because none of my rivals has been that close to death and it makes you look at the world in a different light and that is a huge advantage.

Lance: I don't need to ride for the money, I do it because I love it and I would happily ride for nothing. I will be riding a bike in 10 years time because I feel better when I do exercise and I want to enjoy true good health.

Lance: Hard work, sacrifice and focus will never show up in tests.

Lance: La vie est courte, C'est mieux de gagner. (Life is short: It is better to win.)

Lance: I think it's important to be understood, to be honest, to be hard working, and ultimately the press, the public, the organizers... they'll decide. But I can only be myself. I can't be the guy that goes out and puts on a show... I can only be myself.

Lance: I had learned what it means to ride in the Tour de France. It's not about the bike. It's a metaphor for life, not only the longest race in the world but also the most exalting and heartbreaking and potentially tragic. It poses every conceivable element to the rider and more.

Lance: No one automatically gives you respect just because you show up. You have to earn it.

Lance: When I was sick, I didn't want to die. When I race I don't want to lose. Dying and losing, it's the same thing.

Lance: Yellow wakes me up in the morning. Yellow gets me on the bike every day. Yellow has taught me the true meaning of sacrifice. Yellow makes me suffer. Yellow is the reason I'm here.

Lance: What makes a great endurance athlete is the ability to absorb potenial embarrassment, and to suffer without complaint. I was discovering that if it was a matter of gritting my teeth, not caring how it looked, and outlasting everybody else, I won. It didn't seem to matter what sport it was--in a straight-ahead, long-distant race, I could beat anybody. If it was a suffer-fest, I was good at it.

Lance: Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.

Lance: If you worried about falling off the bike, you'd never get on.

Lance: The truth is, if you asked me to choose between winning the TdF and cancer, I would choose cancer. Odd as it sounds, I would rather have the title of cancer survivor than winner of the Tour, because of what it has done for me as a human being, a man, a husband, a son and a father.

Lance: During our lives we're faced with so many elements as well, we experience so many setbacks, and fight such a hand-to-hand battle with failure, head down in the rain, just trying to stay upright and have a little hope. The Tour isn't just a bike race, it tests you mentally, physically, and even morally.

Lance: Anything is possible. You can be told that you have a 100-percent chance or a 50-percent chance or a 1-percent chance, but you have to believe, and you have to fight.

Lance: It's ironic, I used to ride my bike to make a living. Now I just want to live so that I can ride.

Lance: When [cancer] looked around for a body to hang out in, it made a big mistake when it chose mine.

Lance: If I ever get a chance to do this, I'm going to give it everything.

Lance: [Cancer] put pain in perspective for me, it put suffering and defeat in perspective. The illness taught me how to really suffer and suffer slowly, and it's not as if you get sick and it hurts and a week later you get better. It's a long type of suffering, physical, emotional, mental, social. It gave me a certain sense of hunger and drive and determination that I was going to come back and give it my all.