Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" Charlie Parker was a genius, as was Lester Young. "

Related Quotes:

" We have to recognise there are very few countries you will take the Games to where somebody doesn't have issues on foreign or domestic policy. "

" Nobody ever becomes an expert parent. But I think good parenting is about consistency. It's about being there at big moments, but it's also just the consistency of decision making. And it's routine. "

" World records are only borrowed. "

" I don't think I am a workaholic. I prefer to keep busy. It is better than the alternative. "

" I do genuinely believe that young people who play sport at a competitive level, sensibly controlled, sensibly organised, that has to be a good thing. It will teach them to win, it will teach them to lose with dignity and magnanimity - all the things you want. It's a pretty good metaphor for life. "

" I'm such an odd mix of things. My grandfather was Indian: I've got more family living in India than I do in the U.K. My old man was East London. I was brought up in Yorkshire. My great-grandfather was Irish. "

" Inspirational leaders need to have a winning mentality in order to inspire respect. It is hard to trust in the leadership of someone who is half-hearted about their purpose, or only sporadic in focus or enthusiasm. "

" My motivation to compete was always about improving one year to the next. At 34, I realised I'd never run any quicker, so why hang on? But I love running and still run along woodland trails and beaches every few days. "

" I actually don't believe in big government, and half the time I'm never quite sure I believe in government, generally. "

" There's a difference between hurting when you lose and being a bad loser. You don't compete at the highest level of sport to feel comfortable about losing, but you behave in a civil way when it goes wrong because that is the flip side. "

" Some people found it difficult to understand my relationship with my father, but that may have been because they couldn't get beyond their relationship with their own parents. "

" The biggest fragility in a project is often just the inability to be able to explain to people why you are doing it, and when you're going to do it, and what's going to happen. "

" During my first Olympics in 1980, at the age of 23, I was physically in great condition but mentally too inexperienced to cope comfortably in the pressure cooker of an Olympic year. "

" The characteristic shared by people at the top of their profession is that, to get better, they crave criticism. Most people don't like criticism, but if you are trying to shave two tenths of a second at 800 metres, that is what you crave. "

" All pressure is self-inflicted. It's what you make of it or how you let it rub off on you. "

" I'm not sure there are enough coaches in the system that can take young talent and consistently get them into the top five in the world. "

" There is nothing so marginal as a party that has been in power for 18 years and slides into opposition. You influence nothing. "

" My mum was critical in getting me to recognise very early on that although what I was doing was pretty serious, quite selfish, and probably to most people pretty obsessive, there actually was more to life than running quickly twice round a track. "

" Good running is the ability to have a very well defined on-board computer. The ability to judge distances when running in traffic. "

" Sport is a universal language, building more bridges between people than anything else I can think of. "

" In all Games, there is always a tendency, particularly in the lead up to the Games when there isn't much sport to talk about, to write about things that are not sport. "

" I know many people who are actually queasy about the idea that their kids may harbour sporting ambitions. "

" I joined the local athletics club when I was 12, that's what I did. I did it of my own volition. "

" I can be a bit impatient sometimes. If I'm really focusing on something, I can expect everybody to move at the same pace, and that's probably not massively endearing. "

" Everybody recognises that giving young people competitive outlet through sport is a very good thing. "

" My overwhelming concern will always be the well-being of the athletes. In Olympic sport, it is rare for competitors not to devote half their young life to this. Their families will have given up all sorts of things to allow them to do that. "

" I have always been very good at being able to structure my time. My mother had a huge influence on me. My dad was my coach. He was a hugely influential figure. "

" Getting the Games for London has been the fulfilment of a dream. It is one which I truly believe can change the lives of hundreds of thousands of young people for the better. But in the end, nothing can quite compare with winning your first Olympic gold medal. "

" In 1981, I spoke at the Olympic Congress. I was scandalised that I was the first athlete to be given that chance. But I made the most of it. "

" I think I'm probably just an old-fashioned Tory. I don't wake up each morning trying to figure out what kind of Conservative I am; for me it's quite instinctive. "