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" People think you have pressure when you are young. It's the other way round, actually. "

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" Maybe that's why I like gymnastics - because I like to fly. "

" I think that when you are on a four-inch balance beam, you don't care about laughing or smiling or waving to the crowd because you're going to be down in a second. "

" If I was a boy, nobody would care that I worked out six, seven hours a day when I was 9 years old, no? Why were people always saying 'poor little girl?' I liked to work out and always did more than I was asked to. "

" Near the end of my career, I saw things that didn't make too much sense to me when I was a kid. "

" Scoring the first 10 in history was a big deal, but the fact that even an electronic scoreboard could not figure out how to put out a score, it made the story more historic. "

" One of the most difficult times in my life was when I escaped from Romania in November of 1989. "

" Ceausescu thought I had only a few medals, but I have a room full of them in Bucharest, between 150-200 in all. They needed suitcases to haul them out. "

" Other kids had more talent, but I was the most focused. "

" It feels good when you come to a place like Oklahoma to charge up the batteries. I need that. "

" I did not even look at the scoreboard when my routine was done in 1976. "

" I wasn't allowed to leave Romania. That made me mad. You just want your freedom. You want your space. You want opportunity. "

" I thought celebrity meant Hollywood, that's it. I began to see that does include Olympians. People have so much respect for Olympians. "

" I think gymnastics was associated with the 10. I thought that belonged to the sport, and somehow we gave it way. "

" I didn't know I wanted to be a gymnast; I was just introduced to the gym. I loved the place because it looked like a hi-tech playground with mats and a lot of things I can hang from. "

" In the '80 Olympics... people expected me to win. I was good enough to win, and I made a mistake and ended up second, which is pretty good, too. "

" I would love to be in 'Dancing With the Stars.' "

" I remember everything from 1976. I remember I was 14, and I remember my routines. "

" I worked hard in gymnastics since the time I was six years old until I retired at 23 years of age. "

" Now, I have a kid, I have businesses to take care of, I have to travel. I have to sit down... and find a little time for me. "

" People ask me what the definition of perfection, I said it's none: there is no definition of perfection. "

" You should also appreciate the goodness around you, and surround yourself with positive people. "

Surround Yourself

" When you're growing up, you realize you've got a lot of heavy things on your shoulders. "

" To me, family is what is important. If you don't have it, nothing is going to matter. "

" I am a relaxed person. I am very happy. "

" Uchimura is the greatest of all time. "

" When I went into the Montreal Games, nobody expected much out of me. "

" I made the cover of 'Sports Illustrated,' 'Newsweek' and 'Time' all in one week, and I didn't even know what that meant. "

" I had a lot of energy, and my mom decided to look for a place where I can spend the energy, because I was jumping on the couch and furniture, and I was jumping on the top of the things in the house. "

" See, when I went to the Olympics in '76, the gymnastics people knew that I was good, but everybody else, after I won, everybody was like, 'Where's she coming from? Who is she? What is Romania?' "

" We developed a system in Romania that was very successfully continued for a number of years, but I don't know if it was because of some conflict in the organisation or whether there was government interference... but somehow, they have forgotten the importance of raising gymnasts to be ready for every Olympics. "