Shani Davis Quotes

I was nine-years-old when I first put on skates.

I actually have an ice-skating background. I skated until I was 15, for about eight years. It was hardcore skating for about eight hours a day.

I definitely still work on my skating a lot.

Skating in itself is a difficult sport, and the amazing athletes within the sport are very challenging.

The movies I've made at a certain time of my life were exactly right for the stage of my life, the frame of mind I was in at the time. Each character I've had to play has been me in that time in my life.

I can only write a book like 'The Tin Drum' or 'From the Diary of a Snail' at a special period of my life. The books came about because of how I felt and thought at the time.

There are times in my life when I haven't been happy. Sometimes it's not even physical, it's something else. The key is identifying why you're unhappy and doing whatever you can to fix it in a healthy way.

I've been keeping a diary for thirty-three years and write in it every morning. Most of it's just whining, but every so often there'll be something I can use later: a joke, a description, a quote. It's an invaluable aid when it comes to winning arguments. 'That's not what you said on February 3, 1996,' I'll say to someone.

Every movie I do, I always use things that have happened in my life. Funny moments, anything. If it just sticks out I'll write it down and use that, too, because it has to come out of you. But no one can work when they're depressed. I don't think I'd physically be able to do it if I were depressed.

I'm not at a point in my life when I'm analyzing too much.

Katarina Witt. She was the ultimate competitor. She would just stare down people before competition. She was relentless on the ice.

Fear has governed my life, if I think about it.

If you skate with an Olympic level skater, they make you so much better because you're skating behind them, and you're trying to imitate their stride and their stance. It's like having the world's greatest training wheels.

Skating is one of those sports you unfortunately see people get stuck in.

I only photograph myself at poignant moments in my life as a check of where I am and how large my thighs are.

When I kept a diary, I realised that it was all moanings and depression, and I think that is quite common.

'Joy' to me is a reflection of the life experiences that I've had throughout the first record and kind of having some time and a hiatus. It's just like all of those experiences that I had during that period - that growing up period.

I did keep detailed journals from about fifth grade on, and every so often as I was growing up, I would re-read them and reflect on the previous years of my life.

When I was single my career was my life, so everything I did was of grave importance and was greatly disturbing.

Ice skating is very difficult. It takes a lot of discipline and a lot of hard work. It's fun, but you are there on the ice every morning freezing and trying to do these moves and these tricks.

My theory on life is that life is beautiful. Life doesn't change. You have a day, and a night, and a month, and a year. We people change - we can be miserable or we can be happy. It's what you make of your life.

I really liked the idea of creating a journal myself. It's like the way I clear my throat. I write a page every day, maybe 500 words. It could be about something I'm specifically worried about in the new novel; it could be a question I want answered; it could be something that's going on in my personal life. I just use it as an exercise.

I've kept a diary since I was 11.

When Man evolved Pity, he did a queer thing - deprived himself of the power of living life as it is without wishing it to become something different.

I just sort of write the book I feel like writing given the emotional place I am in my life at the time.