I was born in Colorado and grew up in Pennsylvania with family in Texas and Oklahoma.

All we have is our vote. But it's powerful.

Pete Wilson deregulated energy as a pay out to Enron, and we blamed Gray Davis.

Arnold Schwarzenegger cut teacher's salaries and parks and libraries rather than raise taxes for the many California millionaires and billionaires.

I can't exactly say why there's not much protest music to speak off. And I know there are acts out there still putting a message in their music.

You know how in every heist movie they get past the security cameras that show the hallway leading to the diamonds by jamming the screens with a fake signal of everything looking safe and quiet? Usually a guard coughs so they don't notice the blip from switching to the bogus feed.

The truth is, there's an information blockade in America, and it must be broken. In order to find crucial facts, numbers and outside perspectives, a person must spend an hour searching and cross-searching on the computer.

Depending on what state you live in, you may only have right-wing talk radio and FOX or CBN with MSNBC three hundred channels down the dial.

Every time a congressman or pundit says its 'class warfare' to increase taxes on the wealthy, it's a massive lie.

Billions have been spent for one purpose and one purpose only: to obscure and distract from the fact that Mitt Romney is backing the identical agenda George W. Bush did.

Voting for Romney after the train wreck of that was the eight years of W. Bush is like losing your pay check playing a rigged game of three-card monte and then playing the same game again a week later 'cause the cards are a different color.

With the derivatives market larger than ever, we need way more regulation of Wall Street, not less.

Obamacare is a private mandate that will drive billions to the insurance industry, much like the auto insurance mandate. Hardly socialism. In fact, it was a Republican plan to begin with.

America is a country that prides itself on being able to identify a 'straight shooter' or 'the genuine article' when it comes to our leaders. As a nation, we can 'feel it in our gut' when someone is giving us a bum steer.

After thousands of hours of news coverage, we have learned that Hillary is a liar and Barack is a terrorist or something.

George W. Bush was a silver spoon dolt with no record to speak of other than bankruptcy and selling tropical plants, and we let him sail into the White House, but Barack talks about religious fundamentalism and guns being prevalent in poor areas, and we roast him for weeks?

I do have to give it up for Sarah Palin on one account. She is brave.

Governor Palin leans far closer to 'spokesperson' than representative of the people.

I think I've shown the world I'm a fierce competitor, yes. But I've also shown them that I'm a fierce human being.

You have a personality like mine, it's for everybody... It's not just for some group of people.

I'm like a witch! You can't kill me!

If you ever have the option, come to the Olympics. It's, like, a fun time.

Sometimes I'll be listening to NPR at the gym, and I'll hear them say, 'Oh, Donald Trump did this today.' And I'm like, 'What?' All of a sudden, I have more energy than if I drank an espresso.

Chris Martin has this voice that resonates through a whole arena.

I'm confident in who I and what I'm doing.

I can't explain witchcraft.

I don't want my Olympic experience to be about Mike Pence. You know, I want it to be about my amazing skating and being America's sweetheart.

I'm really go-with-the-flow, but I take things really seriously. At the same time, when things don't go my way, I don't ever freak out. Why? Why freak out?

If I forgot to put something on, and I have to wear a trash bag, I'm just like, 'I'm gonna rock a trash bag today.'

I usually finish things in the last second. But I think, as I've gotten older, I don't worry about it, and I just rock it.

I would say that I'm a hot mess all the time.

Honestly, it's really fun to be yourself. It's really fun to be me.

I've used my sense of humor as a coping tool. It's gotten me through a lot of challenging times.

I've always spoken my mind and from the heart.

It might come off as cocky, but I've been through a lot in my life.

I'm proud of a lot of things I've said on Twitter.

Representing the U.S.A. is one of the greatest honors of my life, and being able to do it as my authentic self makes it all so much sweeter.

When you're not hiding anything, it's just very easy to be yourself - shockingly.

I personally don't have anything to say to Mike Pence. I'm very lucky because legislation that he's pushed hasn't affected my life at all. I spoke out because there are people out there whose lives have been affected by change that he's tried to make.

I really brought that with me: that people think gay people are disgusting... I remember thinking, 'Okay, I might be gay. But I won't tell anybody. Nobody will ever know.'

I realize now that it's important that I share my story... Also, it'll be easy for me to do an interview, to interact with people.

For such a long time in my life, I didn't trust my own voice at all. I always tried to do what other people wanted.

First and foremost, I'm an athlete. And I'm an Olympian. I'm not a gay Olympian. I'm just an Olympian that's also gay. I don't mind reading that - like, 'gay Olympian Adam Rippon.' It's fine. I hope that, in a way, it makes it easier for other young kids who are gay. If they go to the Olympics, they can just be called Olympians.

As a self-proclaimed cooking disaster, I try to makes things that I think I can easily master.

I've never made a meal that I wasn't able to eat, but it that doesn't mean anyone else would ever eat it, haha!

All the sacrifices my mom and family had made had been worth it.

1988 Olympic Champion Brian Boitano was famous for doing a Lutz with one arm over his head. And I wanted to build on that.

Being gay is not something that defines me. What defines me is what my mom always taught me: to treat everyone with respect, to always be a hard worker, and to be kind.

When I am home in L.A., I love to stop by a yoga class or Soul Cycle session. There is nothing like doing some cycling in the dark to club music and candle light.

I'm just one of those people that, if there's a problem, I want to work through it. Push through it and do everything I can. Anything.