Home to me is the world because my books have been translated into more than 30 languages.

Traveling to swimming meets took me beyond my small-town existence, gave me a hint of the exciting world outside of my own home.

When the world says, 'Jump,' you gotta jump. It's like me moving to America when I was 29. I just did it. And now it's a home. You can't plan those things.

That first year after a child, I kind of just hunker down at home - I surrender to that side of me. I don't try to get my body back or be in the world; I go the opposite way.

City of Los Angeles is my home, and it is my duty to lead by example, contribute all that I can, and help make the world a better place with the tools and resources available to me.

It reminds me to say that staying local should never be about looking at the world through a closed window, but about making a home then throwing the doors open and inviting the world in.

I always think the second worst thing in the world is to go on stage at night, and the first worst thing in the world is sitting at home at night. For me, it's scarier to not be doing it than doing it.

I was stuck at home in bed with me and got more and more involved with the Internet. I used it to keep in contact with friends and to make sure I was up to date with everything that was going on in the world.

Let me put it this way: when I read, I learned the world was not as small as my house. And that everybody in my home town was not representative of the way people in the world were raised. And that was what saved me.

So it helped me to just let go of all my tensions and feelings about that world and say 'OK, this is for my fans in Japan. They'll be nice and get into it and have fun.' And it was the first record I made at my home studio.

'A Different World,' for me, was in a lot of ways responsible for me going to college. I wanted to go to a black college, and I wanted to get out of Los Angeles. It's just a natural part of all of our journeys, that idea of leaving home.

When I didn't retain the world title after my first win, which no one's ever done, I was gutted and made my driver take me home straight away. We travelled through the night, and I didn't say a word all the way from Sheffield to South Queensferry.

I had been taught that if I cried, to be quiet about it, so whereas I never howled, the least thing made me cry both at school and at home. Crying tends to separate a child from other children, for even children dislike a cry baby, and I had no friends in the world.

My skating brought me to a level of being well known in Canada, but I've grown up having trained in the U.S. I haven't lost my roots in Canada thanks to the little rpminders again when I come home: People thanking me for what I do and for representing Canada in the world stage.

If I can iron out my accent, it opens up another world of possible jobs. Whereas if you have that very strong European accent, it leaves you always being cast as the Hungarian maid or the stripper or whatever. I have voice lessons, and my coach has given me different tongue-twisters to rehearse at home.

It was very important to me to join an organization that has an established track record of helping young fighters grow into world class athletes and champions. Gladiator Challenge has been a home to such fighters as Quinton Jackson, Rashad Evans, Urijah Faber, Tyson Griffin, Chael Sonnen, Michael McDonald, and many others.

I remember when TiVO first came out I was all about TiVo. I came home and that thing was frozen, and I thought 'This is awful. This is the end of the world'. Then I unplugged it, and I plugged it back in, and still frozen. It was paralyzing. I called them. They said, 'Just unplug it longer.' Fixed. But it also taught me I'm an addict.

Share This Page