I lose now and then. I get lazy. And sometimes I work just hard enough to win.

The bigger the crowd, the more likely I'll do whatever it takes to win.

I'm really normal except for the competitive eating.

When I'm eating I try to make sure I can breathe through my nose the entire time. If I have to breathe through my mouth, there's no way I'm eating or swallowing.

I think Peter King... he's kind of narrow-minded.

I think the traveling is what drew me into 'The Amazing Race' years ago.

It wasn't like I grew up wanting to be a competitive eater at all. Not like a lot of people, like football players, famous people - they knew that that's what they wanted to do when they were young.

I was 21, and I was in college, and I'd eat real healthy during the week, and then on the weekends I would reward myself, and I'd just go to town on whatever my parents had in the fridge. And my little brother would be like, 'Hey.' And so it was actually him that begged me to do my first contest.

I'm very competitive.

Going into a contest, I do not eat solid food and take in minimal calories for days, so I am hungry.

I love to eat! I don't think I have ever gotten sick of eating a food, unless it is bad food.

I've strained some muscles here and there, in my throat, even my jaw. Nothing that doesn't heal quickly.

It's always a battle to maintain my weight.

There are competitive people who love to push their body but don't love to eat like I do.

Make sure I'm chewing, swallowing, and breathing, my whole body is working together. I can just find a rhythm and keep going and going and going. It's my love of food.

I've signed babies' arms. I wanted to pull a 'Ricky Bobby' and sign a baby's forehead.

So now I'm 'the hot dog guy,' which isn't bad. I take it in stride. It's not like it was my goal in life. I'm having fun with it.

If I can train for a contest for a week, it's a guaranteed victory.

When I'm in training, I eat no solid food except hot dogs for six weeks.

It's more of a mental sport because I know I can push harder than someone who doesn't know what his body can do.

I love food, and not surprisingly, I often suffer from stomach upsets when I overeat in general, let alone when I'm competing.

The way I see it, I love to eat more than anybody.

I go to the doctor every four months to get my blood work done to make sure everything is working right.

Everything at a baseball game is pretty much health food if you subscribe to the theory that you're eating what makes you happy.

Kobayashi was the man. The other competitive eaters, they thought of him as unbeatable... He wasn't an eater. He was a god.

I think I get out of bed because I love to eat.

Competitive eating is something I can control. I know I can control, and if I push hard, I can win.

Winning tastes pretty good.

I'm getting paid to eat. It's not too bad of a life.

There's nothing worse than getting third.

Military caregivers play an essential role in the recovery process of our veterans and are more than deserving of our support.

Honoring our nation's heroes and their caregivers is a cause very important to me - especially on Independence Day.

I didn't just eat hot dogs. I studied how the food went into your system and how it would be digested.

I know that when I'm fitter, I breathe better. If I breathe better, I can eat more.

Traveling around the world to eat, it's a weird life, but I love it.

The most important thing in any contest is finding your rhythm and making your body work for you.

I love hot dogs.

I know I hold the contest record for downing the most hot dogs, and the record for most Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Contest championships, but it was really cool to be a part of a Guinness World Records official attempt.

I don't mind losing because it really shows me what the other eaters are capable of.

It doesn't get old. Just like running doesn't get old to people who like to run. I just love to eat.

I have to eat healthy, and I recover. I run, and I lift weights.

If there's something I like, I'm going to eat a little more of it than most people.

I do know when my body is ready or when it's going to perform best for me.

I can't tell you all my secrets to how I can eat so many. Someone out there might copy it. But I will tell you this: The night before the competition, I sleep only four hours. That means when I actually do eat, my stomach will want to digest the food quicker.

I've slowly made my body adapt and understand what's going to happen.

Honestly, I'm so competitive that sometimes I don't understand what other people are going through.

There have always been a lot of critics of competitive eating. You can be a critic of anything. It's easy to be a critic. You can say negative things about golf, the amount of water wasted on golf courses. Or NASCAR. There are wastes in everything.

I'd never eaten lobster before. I was 21. I didn't know what the heck I was doing. I was scooping guts. But I tied for third. And the two men who beat me didn't look good. One was Bob Shoudt. He seemed in pain. And I felt fine! I was 'Oh, my God, they look like they're dying. And I can eat so much more!' I knew I was made for it after that contest.

I'm more than just a competitive eater. I'm a smart guy. I could be an awesome park ranger.

I have to learn to ignore my feelings. Not just the feeling of hunger and the feeling of full, but the feeling of embarrassment, too. I have to remember that this is only weird if I make it weird.