When you're growing up, you realize you've got a lot of heavy things on your shoulders.

See, when I went to the Olympics in '76, the gymnastics people knew that I was good, but everybody else, after I won, everybody was like, 'Where's she coming from? Who is she? What is Romania?'

We developed a system in Romania that was very successfully continued for a number of years, but I don't know if it was because of some conflict in the organisation or whether there was government interference... but somehow, they have forgotten the importance of raising gymnasts to be ready for every Olympics.

Near the end of my career, I saw things that didn't make too much sense to me when I was a kid.

Fitness is just like marriage: you cannot cheat on it and think it would benefit you. People need to incorporate it as part of their daily life.

It takes two to make a marriage a success and only one to make it a failure.

I loved it. I just thought I wanted to stay in college forever. I came to New York all by myself; I didn't have any friends there. But it was fine. I felt comfortable. I started thinking, 'Maybe graduate school?' I was really cool with people who were smart, who knew stuff. It's very romantic and stimulating.

One thing he always said, and I love this quote and I really believe it, my ex said, 'You don't truly know a person until they don't get what they want. That's when they show you who they are.' You wouldn't think that the person you were married to and were with for 10 years and taught you the quote would be the best number one example to prove it.