Lance Armstrong Quotes - Page 7

For most of my life I had operated under a simple schematic of winning and losing, but cancer was teaching me a tolerance for ambiguities.

What athletes do may not be that healthy, the way we push our bodies completely over the edge to the degrees that are not human. I've said all along that I will not live as long as the average person.

I've committed to surfing the rest of my life.

My mom was such a strong character. I don't want to say she was like a man, but she was tough.

It's tough to be a 15- or 16-year-old athlete competing around the country. There's tension, there's media. I had no idea what I was getting into.

If I can't face my accusers, that's a joke. We did that in medieval times.

Athletes don't have much use for poking around in their childhoods, because, introspection doesn't get you anywhere in a race.

It's nice to win. I'll never win again. I may have to take up golf - take on Tiger.

Evan Handler is a man who’s looked into the abyss and laughed. His book, It’s Only Temporary, made me laugh along with him. He covers love, lust, showbiz, triumph, and despair – and he manages to be both funny and inspiring about all of it. It’s an important book that I think can help to spread goodness around the world. Something we desperately need.

On a friendship with former president George W. Bush: He's a personal friend, but we've all got the right not to agree with our friends.

It's funny, because I have periods where I just kind of go dark. I don't tweet, I don't talk, I don't interview, and then I have times where I do.

We each cope differently with the specter of our deaths. Some people deny it. Some pray. Some numb themselves with tequila. I was tempted to do a little of each of those things. But I think we are supposed to try to face it straightforwardly, armed with nothing but courage.

I have never doped. I can say it again, but I've said it for seven years.

It's a great feeling when someone like Bernard Hinault comes up to you on the podium to say 'Welcome to the club

The unwillingness to accept anything short of victory, that underlying fury, is the fundamental building block of my bottomless motivation to succeed. It is my credo in all that I do in life from battling cancer to bicycle racing.

It's something I find enjoyable. Whether it is a road bike or mountain bike or tandem bike. I enjoy riding a bike.

People refer to 'the good ol' days', but I don't know what they're talking about. As someone who's battled cancer, if I lived more than 20 years ago, I'd be a dead man.

There were something like 50 good, arduous climbs around Nice, solid inclines of ten miles or more. The trick was not to climb every once in awhile, but to climb repeatedly. I would do three different climbs in one day, over the course of a six- or seven-hour ride. A 12 mile climb took about an hour, so that tells you what my days were like.

My career is going to be played out year by year. Will I be here in 2004? I don't know. The record won't keep me here. Happiness will.

The Europeans look down on raising your hands. They don't like the end-zone dance. I think that's unfortunate. That feeling - the finish line, the last couple of meters - is what motivates me.

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.

We sped on, across the plains, toward Metz. I hung back, saving myself. It is called the Race of Truth. The early stages separate the strong riders from the weak. Now the weak would be eliminated altogether.

How many times do I have to say it? … Well, it can't be any clearer than 'I've never taken drugs.'

I will spend the rest of my life trying to earn back trust and apologize to people.

If a script writer had come up with a story resembling what you have just achieved, even the Hollywood studios would have refused.