A biography for Steve Prefontainehasn’t been written yet.
“What does it prove, running in the AAU meet?”
“Every once in a while I think, 'What am I doing out here running, busting myself up? Life could be so much easier. The other guys are out having fun, doing other things, why not me?'”
“I'm going to work so that it's a pure guts race at the end, and if it is, I am the only one who can win it.”
“If he's having a good day and running the right race, nobody can beat Frank Shorter at 10,000 meters... nobody except me.”
“I've been in international competition, and now I know what the big boys can do. You don't go out and just run. There's an offense and a defense.”
“I know places you better speak low if you've been to college. Men will come across the room and cold-deck you if you hold your glass wrong.”
“To hell with love of country - I compete for myself.”
“I have a positive mental attitude, and I think I'm divine, but I also think it takes a heck of a lot of blood, sweat and tears.”
“If anybody wants to beat me, let them run a world record.”
“World records at 19. I don't want that. Later, yes. And when it comes, I'll learn to live with it, but it won't be my first love.”
“I'm the one who has made all the sacrifices. Those are my American records, not the country's.”
“It doesn't feel that good when you're ahead the whole way.”
“My philosophy is that I'm an artist. I perform an art not with a paint brush or a camera. I perform with bodily movement. Instead of exhibiting my art in a museum or a book or on canvas, I exhibit my art in front of the multitudes.”
“Something inside of me just said 'Hey, wait a minute, I want to beat him,' and I just took off.”
“A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more.”
“If the Olympics come around, and I'm in shape, then I'll compete. But I won't be representing the United States; I'll be representing myself.”
“It's not who's the best - it's who can take the most pain.”
“I used to say, 'Hey, man, what kind of a stupid question is that?' to a newspaperman asking me heavy things right after a race when I'm still in an emotional state. Now I at least try to answer.”
“What I want is to be number one.”
“Why shouldn't I do what I want to do... I'm an American citizen.”