Steve Prefontaine

“Did you ever run behind a slow pack? You get a trailing wind and a lot of body odor.”

“I don't care about being on television.”

“Nobody likes tainted victories.”

“A race is a work of art that people can look at and be affected in as many ways they're capable of understanding.”

“The AAU doesn't care about the athletes; why should I care about them?”

“I decided that if I was going to continue in track, that I didn't want to lose, that I wasn't going to lose.”

“Kids made fun of me because I was a slow learner, because I was hyperactive, because of a lot of things. Running gave me confidence.”

“I like to be able to go out to dinner once in a while. I like to be able to drive my MG up the McKenzie River on a weekday afternoon. I like to be able to pay my bills on time.”

“If I want to go to Europe and get thrashed by the Europeans, that's my business. Every race I lose I learn from and get tougher.”

“To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift.”

“Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run. I like to make people stop and say, 'I've never seen anyone run like that before.' It's more than just a race, it's a style. It's doing something better than anyone else. It's being creative.”

“What I like most about track is the feeling I get inside after a good run.”

“American athletes, especially distance runners, are at a big disadvantage against the rest of the world. We're expected to live by all the rules, like not being able to coach, but still train and make our own living.”

“Over the years, I've given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement.”

“You probably choose x-country because you were too small to play football.”

“If you can make money with your talents, why not?”

“No one will ever win a 5,000-meter by running an easy two miles. Not against me.”

“When people go to a track meet, they're looking for something, a world record, something that hasn't been done before. You get all this magnetic energy, people focusing on one thing at the same time. I really get excited about it. It makes me want to compete even more. It makes it all worthwhile, all the hours of hard work.”

“People say I should be running for a gold medal for the old red, white and blue and all that bull, but it's not gonna be that way.”

“Coos Bay is a sports-minded town. You had to be an athlete to be somebody.”