Caitlyn Jenner Quotes
Media Personality, Socialite
If I wasn't dyslexic, I probably wouldn't have won the Games. If I had been a better reader, then that would have come easily, sports would have come easily... and I never would have realized that the way you get ahead in life is hard work.
I have struggled with identity all my life. It's not like something that just happened last week.
It caused more problems as a young kid, because the simple process of perceiving words on a piece of paper was hard for me. Many people think dyslexic people see things backwards. They don't see things backwards.
I always felt that my greatest asset was not my physical ability, it was my mental ability.
The hardest part about being a woman is figuring out what to wear.
I'm just going to go live life. I'm going to go enjoy life. I have nothing left to hide. I am kind of a free person, a free soul.
If I were to compare the Olympic decathlon to fatherhood, I would say fatherhood is a lot tougher.
Life wasn't easy growing up; it was frustrating. If I had been a better reader, then that would have come easily, sports would have come easily, everything would have come easily, and I never would have realized that the way you get ahead in life is hard work.
First of all, I try to be a positive role model.
Gamble, cheat, lie, and steal. Let me explain: Gamble for your best shot in life - dare to take risks. Cheat those who would have you be less than you are. Lie in the arms of those you love. And finally, steal every moment of happiness.
I didn't only have a perceptual problem, I was also so nervous and so upset. The process just didn't work. I lost enthusiasm for school and I flunked second grade. The teachers said I was lazy.
I want to dress well. I want to look good.
I thought everybody else was doing much better than I was.
My mom is, for 89 years old, is extraordinarily open-minded.
I still have nightmares about taking tests.
I called Daley Thompson after the Games of '84, when he won. He'd had this phenomenal decathlon for nine events - and then he went out there and jogged the 1,500 meters and missed the world record by, like, three points.
I'm so happy after such a long struggle to be living my true self. Welcome to the world, Caitlyn. Can't wait for you to get to know her/me.
We put so much pressure on kids to excel in school at such a young age.
The biggest problem with dyslexic kids is not the perceptual problem, it is their perception of themselves. That was my biggest problem.
When you have a voice, and you have an opportunity at the world level to be able to speak, it has to be right.
I had really no sense of style. Everyone around me in my family had the sense of style - I learned as much as I possibly could.
If you are dyslexic, your eyes work fine, your brain works fine, but there is a little short circuit in the wire that goes between the eye and the brain. Reading is not a fluid process.
If you're asking your kids to exercise, then you better do it, too. Practice what you preach.
I have found that women have so much unleashed power that they don't really utilize because they don't have confidence in themselves about who they are and what they can do.
I learned that the only way you are going to get anywhere in life is to work hard at it. Whether you're a musician, a writer, an athlete or a businessman, there is no getting around it. If you do, you'll win - if you don't, you won't.
If you're going to dedicate every second to winning the decathlon, what are you doing wasting your time in bed?
I spent twelve years training for a career that was over in a week. Joe Namath spent one week training for a career that lasted twelve years.
Start early and begin raising the bar throughout the day.
I was growing up in the 50's and 60's. Back then they didn't even know what dyslexia was.
If you are a kid, reading is really important stuff.
I am from the Kardashian group. We can take anything.
If I had not been dyslexic, I wouldn't have needed sports. I would have been like every other kid. Instead, I found my one thing, and I was never going to let go of it. That little dyslexic kid is always in the back of your head.
Our mission for younger people is to do our best to make exercise cool, hip - the thing to do.
The truth is everybody does it from time to time. People dial telephone numbers and they get a wrong number only to find that they've read the last two digits backwards. Everybody does it, but dyslexics have this tendency to a higher degree.
I was a dyslexic kid.
I always thought everybody else was better than me.
Waving the flag at the 1976 Olympics wasn't my idea. It was too much apple pie and ice cream. Not that I don't love my country, but I felt it was my victory up there, I put all the time into it.
It's about working when nobody's watching.
When the time comes for your brain to process the information, the second word comes up faster than the first one. So when it's in your head, all of a sudden, it comes out backwards and you think of the word backwards.
Nobody has milked one performance better than me - and I'm damned proud of it.
I had a lot of conversations with my family, my close friends, with my pastor, with God, and kind of came to a revelation that maybe I should be honest with myself about who I am and let that person - this woman who has lived inside me for my entire life - finally have an opportunity to live.
I am not a spokesperson for the trans community, I am not. The media kind of projects me as being the spokesperson, but from my standpoint, I am not. I am a spokesperson for my story, and that's all I can tell.
I have made a lot of mistakes raising the four Jenner kids.
There's nothing more, nothing better in life to wake up in the morning, look at yourself in the mirror, and feel comfortable with yourself and who you are.
Honestly, since the Diane Sawyer piece, every day it's like, it's exciting to go to the mailbox... Because I get letters every day from all of these people from all over the world.
Hardly nobody gets to live two genders in their life.
That's the most important thing you do in your life - raise children and try to do the best job as a parent and give your kids the best shot in life to go out there into the big, bad world.
It's one of the hardest things in life - choosing your own name.
So many people go through life, and they never deal with their own issues, no matter what the issues are - ours happen to be gender identity. But, how many people go through life and just waste an entire life 'cause they'd never deal with themselves to be who they are.
I got into sports because that was a way to prove your masculinity. I was good at it.
The 'Vanity Fair' article was interesting to do because it was the first time I ever really had the opportunity to be absolutely truthful with a reporter about every aspect of my life.
I have always actually been with and attracted to very strong women, and I think I've learned a lot from them.
I wish I were kind of normal. It would be so much more simple.
If I can make a dollar, I certainly am not stupid.
Some people look gender non-conforming because they want to look that way - they don't want to conform to society's expectations.
I have 10 children. I've got my eighth grandchild in the oven with Kimberly. I have all these wonderful kids.
Sports saved my life.
Everybody wants to have a partner; everybody would love to have a family, and for trans people, sometimes that can be extraordinarily difficult to do.
You don't go out and change your gender for a television show, O.K.? It ain't happening. I don't care who you are.
Bruce always had to tell a lie. He was always living that lie. Caitlyn doesn't have any secrets.
It hurts every day when you practice hard, but when this decathlon is over, I got the rest of my life to recuperate. Who cares how bad it hurts?
I probably went all the way to junior high school before a school doctor told me that I was 'dyslexic.'
For all intents and purposes, I'm a woman.
Being a celebrity is a business.
I met Arthur Ashe a few times. I know how important education was to him.
Sexuality is who you are personally attracted to... But gender identity is who you are in your soul.
My greatest gift in life was being dyslexic. It made me special. It made me different. If I had not been dyslexic, I wouldn't have needed sports.
If you want to call me names, make jokes and doubt my intentions, go ahead, because the reality is I can take it.
I never wanted to hurt anyone else, most of all my family and my kids.
Trans people deserve something vital; they deserve your respect. From that respect comes a more compassionate community.
I had been carpooling kids for 33 years.
I've been married to Kris for 21 years, and there have always been rocky times. And it's nothing special.
The only thing I did is, I wore the same pair of socks in every decathlon I was ever in.
Sometimes I feel so separated, you know? The Kardashians over here, the Jenners over here, little me in the middle. We've got to keep the family going.
What I went through in 1976, it's the same today: It's about all the pressure that you feel, the anxiety, the family, and everything that surrounds the Games, and then getting there knowing this is your big chance, and you're able to come through. It's such a satisfying thing.
We have a rich tradition here in the United States of great decathletes, which is amazing 'cause we have absolutely no program to develop these guys. Zero. There's nothing. They do it on their own, just like I did back in '76.
In the fifth grade I discovered something I could do better than the other kids. One day, the teacher set up a bunch of chairs, and she had everyone run to the chairs and back while she timed us. I had the fastest time in the whole school!
Decathletes have to train for every event: sprints one day, field events the next. You pump up to make yourself strong enough to throw? Try pole vaulting at 250 pounds. There are 32 guys in most decathlons, and they're in 32 little track meets.
I don't have anything Olympic in our house - no pictures, none of that stuff. Consciously I do that. With 10 children, I don't want to hold that over their heads.
Living by myself out in Malibu has been really good. I kind of have my freedom; I've got a whole house to myself. The tough part comes when sometimes, you know, you get pretty lonely.
Speed is more important than endurance in the decathlon.
If I win the gold medal, I will be set for the rest of my life. The medal itself doesn't give you anything, but it makes you a marketable item. You take it and see what you can do.
I love the 1,500 meters. I knew that, if I had to do it to win, I'd run under 4:05. That means I could pick up 100 points, maybe even 150 points, on anybody in the world.
The next great decathlete is going to be a runner. I still feel that a Dan O'Brien, if he was a runner and not a sprinter, could have gone over 9,000 points.
I used to play a lot of tennis and then, next thing you know, same thing with tennis. That banging on the knees, the jarring, twisting motion - I couldn't do it. All of a sudden, every time I played, my knee would swell up.
I'm just glad my gold medal's at home, because I'd hate to try to win another.
Being the world's greatest athlete just does not get it done on the golf course.
'Can't Stop the Music' has become a cult film. It's kind of shocking to me. People come up to me all the time and say, 'I just saw it!'
I spent 12 years of my life, the last six years training six to eight hours a day, every day of my life. At the time, when I was 20 to 26, I could do things like that, and you're not going to notice it.
My knee has always given me problems. But it got to the point where I actually had to start giving up things. And I hate that.
'Esquire Magazine' just gave me 'Father of the Year'. I'll put it right up there with my gold medal. I survived; that's why they gave it to me.
COPD includes chronic bronchitis, emphysema, or both. Over time, it makes it harder and harder to breathe because less air is able to flow in and out of the lungs.
I never went after fame. It fell into my lap.
There is kind of an underground conservative movement in Hollywood, really.
It's important for people to recognize that they shouldn't ignore symptoms like shortness of breath or a cough that won't go away, because these may be signs of COPD.
I wore U.S.A. across my chest in 1976.
As an athlete, my health has always been important to me.
The Montreal Olympics were in July 1976, the bicentennial, at the height of patriotism.
I'm very laid back, easy. There's nothing better in life than seeing your kids do well.
My wife Kris and I enjoy keeping an active lifestyle, so it's hard to imagine what it would be like if breathing problems kept me from participating in the activities I love to do. But that's exactly what happens to many people who develop COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.