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Rafael Nadal Spanish professional tennis player, 2001–2024
Sometimes when I'm in the first round or second round, and I'm not playing well, I say, okay, just accept it. Don't get frustrated. Just accept and focus.
Recorded Jon Wertheim, 60 Minutes, CBS, CBS News / 60 Minutes, 5 July 2020 source ↗
Margaret Atwood Novelist, poet and critic
Don’t sit down in the middle of the woods. If you’re lost in the plot or blocked, retrace your steps to where you went wrong. Then take the other road. And/or change the person. Change the tense. Change the opening page.
Recorded The Guardian Review, 20 February 2010 source ↗
Václav Havel President of Czechoslovakia 1989–1992; President of the Czech Republic 1993–2003; playwright and dissident
The kind of hope I often think about (especially in situations that are particularly hopeless, such as prison) I understand above all as a state of mind, not a state of the world. Either we have hope within us, or we don't.
Recorded Karel Hvížďala, Interviews conducted 1985–1986, published in English 1990, Václav Havel Library Foundation (havelcenter.org), 1986 source ↗
Katie Taylor Irish professional boxer; Olympic champion 2012
There are days when I wake up and don't want to move, but you must show up!
Recorded RTÉ, 7 July 2025 source ↗

More from Cathy Freeman

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Question What are you best at that nobody watching would notice? Craft & work
I wanted to be an Olympic champion and I didn't care about the goings-on around me. In my heart and with all of my soul I was ready, willing and I was very able. I had a deadly sense of self-belief. I'd go to another level and say I had a deadly sense of self-conviction where you can say whatever you want, you can do whatever you want but you're not going to touch me.
Recorded National Museum of Australia, 1 January 2021 source ↗
Question What fills you with the most pride? Identity & self
But I was not really planning to create what seems to be a lasting impact. I was just always about personal expression and pride in who I was as an Australian Indigenous girl. It was more about me sharing all of me with the world. But, certainly after all these years, it makes me really proud.
Recorded Euan Crumley, Interview marking 25 years since the Sydney 2000 400m final, Athletics Weekly, 22 September 2025 source ↗

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