Dorothy Hamill was my big idol as a kid. She'd won the Olympics in 1976. She was America's sweetheart with her personality, her talent, her haircut. Kristi Yamaguchi
Get up early and go to the local produce markets. In Latin America and Asia, those are usually great places to find delicious food stalls serving cheap, authentic and fresh specialties. Anthony Bourdain
Hurricane Katrina overwhelmed levees and exploded the conventional wisdom about a shared American prosperity, exposing a group of people so poor they didn't have $50 for a bus ticket out of town. If we want to learn something from this disaster, the lesson ought to be: America's poor deserve better than this. Michael Eric Dyson
I always have a positive reaction to Times Square - you've got so many people passing through here, so many cultures, and so many people merging into the central community of New York City. This is the hub of America. Dhani Jones
I am an African-American in America. That will never change. But I don't have to be defined by that. Robert Griffin iii
I am an American man, and in America, we still think of figure skaters as little girls in pretty, sparkly dresses - I worked very hard to change the perception and image of figure skating, and I think I've done a great job on my end, but in figure skating, taste needs to evolve. Johnny Weir
I feel like in America, we don't have a kid problem. You think about all these issues that these kids are dealing with, we have an adult problem. We have adults that do not place the priority on our kids to get a valuable education. Alonzo Mourning
I guess I wanted to leave America for awhile. It wasn't that I wanted to become an expatriate, or just never come back, I needed some breathing room. I'd already been translating French poetry, I'd been to Paris once before and liked it very much, and so I just went. Paul Auster
I knew I was the second-best tennis player in the state of Florida and No. 8 in the United States of America when I was 12 years old and I couldn't tell you what I was in baseball, but I liked my chances in tennis of getting a scholarship to college. Jim Courier
I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually. James A.Baldwin
I really do feel part of America to my very bones; at the same time, I know that I come from somewhere else. Paul Auster
I think it puts baseball back on the map as a sport. It's America's pastime and just look at everyone coming out to the ballpark. It has been an exciting year. Mark McGwire
I think the concept of seeking fame and fortune in women's football in the States is a bit idyllic. Look at all the teams in America that have folded, and the leagues. Hope Solo
I think the O.J. Simpson case conjured all the paranoia, the racial anxiety, but also the racial fatigue that America has endured over the last half century. Michael Eric Dyson
I think we have our sports within our own culture that are huge with baseball, football, basketball, and hockey. Those are the sports in America that we grow up with and soccer isn't really there yet. Claudio Reyna
I wanted to serve. It was Desert Storm. I thought, 'I was a rich kid, and America's been good to me.' Max Brooks