Money is evil.

In my teen years leading up to the Olympics, I loved having the excuse to skip out on parties because of skating. Partying wasn't my thing anyway. Mostly I hung out with other skaters. We were all buddies, so it's not like I missed out on socializing. I was really enjoying myself.

In group lesson number six I think we learned how to turn backwards and then just kind of wiggle. That wasn’t really skating backward, but I guess I was going in the right direction.

I was just ice skating. I had no concept of that. In those days you couldn’t see the judges. I was this little person on the ice and they were just people that would stand around the boards.

I was passionate. I found something that I loved. I could be all alone in a big old skating rink and nobody could get near me and I didn’t have to talk to anybody because of my shyness. It was great. I was in my fantasy world.

It’s different today than it was then. In those days we were strictly amateurs. If I had wanted to stay in for the ’80 Olympics, my parents couldn’t have afforded it.

You see the fairy tale – four minutes of glory at the Olympics. I thought my life would be cake after that.

If I’m on skates, I feel at home no matter what I’m doing. If they wanted me to sing and dance I think I could do it just becauseI was on skates. When I’m not on skates, though, I feel very strange.

I wanted to learn how to skate backwards and they wouldn’t help me and they went off and left me on my own.

I wouldn’t say that there’s ever been an Olympic champion that didn’t deserve to win an Olympic Gold Medal.