I'm going to skate exactly the way I want to, create programs that I like, and everything will fall into place where it is supposed to.

I'm not commercial, I'm not for Special K cereal and I'm not a Wheaties boy; I'm a little bit more avant-garde, a little bit more out there.

I'm very inspired by the artfulness and soulfulness of the Russian people.

I've always wanted to make a music video with skating and different imagery, something very artistic.

If I wanted to be any woman in the world, it would not be Bethenny Frankel.

Nobody gets lucky all the time. Nobody can win all the time. Nobody's a robot. Nobody's perfect.

Nothing shocks me anymore. I've embraced men in thongs, I've embraced women with padded bras. I mean, I can embrace Larry King saying 'fierce.'

Now the fact that people are saying, 'Oh my God, he's finally come out' - I was never in.

The gymnastic events are really what I tune into the Summer Olympics for.

To be honest, I just want to go somewhere where I can wear a white Speedo.

To me, figure skating is an art form, and that's what I always try to bring in, even to my competitive programs.

To me, skating should look effortless even when you're doing the hardest of elements.

To sum up my idea of on-ice costume fashion sense, it's probably that too much is never enough.

When you are an athlete, it's difficult to take time off and say you want to come back without everyone judging you and attacking you.

You only live once. Life is a show.

Being in the public eye is part of what I do, and taking on a multitude of different projects - television, radio, fashion, writing or deep-sea diving - is a blessing. It is also how I pay my bills and fund my own skating, as I don't have a sponsor or financial help from my federation.

Creating emotion was what my career was all about. I wanted people to laugh at me; I wanted people to cry with me. I wanted people to feel good or to think about something when they watched me. I think that's why, even not being an Olympic champion, I have such a huge following around the world.

Fashion is something that I want to be involved with for a long time, and I want to show that I can give people what they want while still keeping my pizzazz and my razzle-dazzle.

Figure skating is a bit dated - it's like that tweed jacket you pull out of the back of your closet from time to time, and I'm going to try to Chanel it up a little bit.

Figure skating is theatrical, and a part of it is wearing costumes. My costumes were very over-the-top and outrageous for figure skating. But for me, it's all beautiful. Even when nobody else believed they were beautiful, I felt beautiful in them.