Nellie Kim, an Olympic champion from the former Soviet Union, got a 10 right after me in '76, but nobody talks about that.

What can you know about life at 14? I have learned a lot since, but you learn slowly. You get hit by many things and try to make sense of it.

I come from a communist country. We learned nothing of lawyers, nothing about rights.

My marriage to my husband, Bart Conner in 1996 is my proudest personal moment.

People assume a lot of things about gymnasts - that the girls work too hard, it's way too much for them, they are too young to work so hard.

I always say I don't want to change anything in my life.

If I have a feeling of not trusting, I don't get too close.

It's very hard to get to the top. It's hardest to stay at the top.

I don't think many people consider in their heart that they have two places that are home.

I like Oklahoma. It's a quiet place. You can work, and nobody disturbs you.

I cannot change anything, so I don't want to think about what I would have done.

I come from a wonderful country with wonderful people.

I had a lot of energy, and my mom decided to look for a place where I can spend the energy, because I was jumping on the couch and furniture, and I was jumping on the top of the things in the house.

I never thought I would be standing here, married to an All-American guy, living in Oklahoma. What a country.

I made the cover of 'Sports Illustrated,' 'Newsweek' and 'Time' all in one week, and I didn't even know what that meant.

My message to the ladies would be, you can do all of the things, but not all of them at the same time.

I would love to be in 'Dancing With the Stars.'

I live in the moment. I can turn the page and move on.

Near the end of my career, I saw things that didn't make too much sense to me when I was a kid.

I think gymnastics was associated with the 10. I thought that belonged to the sport, and somehow we gave it way.

I basically have my life today as a result of what I did as a child. What did I miss out on? Yeah, I missed not hanging out at shopping malls, I guess, but that is not a big deal because you don't get a medal for that.

Scoring the first 10 in history was a big deal, but the fact that even an electronic scoreboard could not figure out how to put out a score, it made the story more historic.

You can't jump from little things to big things. It just takes time and patience.

I have a classic taste with a twist, because classic never goes away.

What makes me happy is the appreciation of people around me.

I like risky stuff.

We used to exchange leotards with gymnasts from other countries. I don't remember who I got my most prized leotard from, but it was one with a lot of stars on it.

Romania doesn't have a big tradition of gymnastics as a fun activity. We were a little behind in this aspect.

I didn't realize that winning the Olympics at age 14 automatically put me in the category of being a celebrity.

I ended up in the US for a month or so, before moving to Montreal with some Romanian friends.

Ceausescu thought I had only a few medals, but I have a room full of them in Bucharest, between 150-200 in all. They needed suitcases to haul them out.

I like seeing advanced acrobatics, but I also like to see more than tumbling. It's important to combine the artistry of gymnastics with the tough skills. It's called artistic gymnastics. We should stand by the name.

If I was 14 or 15 again, I would do the same thing. I've done everything. I think I've accomplished more than I had in mind.

People ask me what the definition of perfection, I said it's none: there is no definition of perfection.

I always say, 'When the Olympics are happening, you shouldn't be in any other place in the planet - you should be here.'

I like to tell young people to work hard for your goals and live in the moment.

My parents were very loving, but disciplinarians.

I have had a few turning points, the first day I entered a gymnastics school at age 6.

Of course, most people remember that I received the first perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics competition.

I worked hard in gymnastics since the time I was six years old until I retired at 23 years of age.

Of course, I grew up in Communist Romania, but I am happy to say that now our country is democratic, and prospering, since the revolution in 1989.

We are not coaching on a daily basis because we often travel with our charity and commercial interests.

As an Olympic champion gymnast, I have always stayed involved in my sport.

It was good to be a kid because I did not realise all the things that came with the success. Going to the Games, I was asked what I expected to do.

I hoped to win a medal and hoped it would be gold. I knew I was good but didn't know I would be the one to score something that had never been done before.

Everything I do today is because of what I did when I was 14.

It's like someone important is missing from a party because you can't imagine an Olympic gymnastics competition without Romania.

We developed a system in Romania that was very successfully continued for a number of years, but I don't know if it was because of some conflict in the organisation or whether there was government interference... but somehow, they have forgotten the importance of raising gymnasts to be ready for every Olympics.

Uchimura is the greatest of all time.

I was a perfectionist in gymnastics.