**All right, just wanna make sure we're all in the same zone, we're pumped up, ready to go. Watch the women, you never know what they're gonna do ~~ Battle of the Sexes on Ice II

**I need a Hug

**Scott, you've taught me everything I know.....about Chew and Show. No, seriously, you are the best putter within 8 feet of the hole I've ever seen. And, that six thousand dollars I owe you on the golf course? After tonight, we're eeeven.... I love you man!...I can't talk. ~~ Welcome Back Scott

**It's thanks to Scott Hamilton and the image that he created for skating that has given me the courage to wear a suit like this! ~~ Welcome Back Scott

**Scooter is such a hero of mine, I don't even mind losing my hair. ~~ Welcome Back Scott

**Wait! Wait!...Scott, SO good to have you back, buddy. ~~ Welcome Back Scott

**"I've always said one of the greatest gifts I ever got from skating is never having to decide what I was going to be when I grew up. Now I've changed that to, 'The best thing is that I've never had to grow up.'"

**Watch out for their fingernails, 'kay guys? Watch out for their fingernails. ~~Battle of the Sexes on Ice II

** The first thing I'm going to do is try not to fall off that podium up there.

**"It's a great way to live - to entertain. We don't have a lot of props, we don't have a set. We have a white piece of ice and if you don't work with the music and try to entertain the people, then it is a pretty tough palete out there. I try to encourage the audience to be as much help as they can. That we're in this together."

**"All those hours on the rink is where a skaters strength comes from,that's where a standing ovation starts; if you don't want to be there, its going to show. Nothing you dreamed about is going to happen if you forget why you started in the first place... you have to skate with you heart- before anyone can believe in you, you have to believe in yourself"

** "Can we help you do your homework, little girl?"

** "I wish for everyone to have shinny blades, clean edges, quick turns and soft landings. Merry Christmas."

** "We've got a whole audience here who knows how to bake cookies!" ~~Kurt referring to the overwhelingly female audience during a 1994 "Eye on Toronto" interview

** "I should have studied before the short program!" Kurt leafing through a copy of "Forcing the Edge" during a 1994 Dini Petty Show interview

** "...it's a trigger response when you feel so bad to say 'I'm sorry.' So sorry I said I'm sorry!" (Kurt apologizing for apologizing to Canada at the 1994 Olympics on the Dini Petty Show)

** "Well, I've only been pro for about a week!" (Kurt responding to Dini Petty after she asked him about his future plans as a pro skater in 1994)

** "Oh, it was OK because none of them beat me!" (Kurt describing his feelings about the pros reinstating for the 1994 Olympics on the Dini Petty Show)

** "There are 2 things about this outfit that make it illegal--a full bare arm and chest hair--sexy, but it's illegal." (Kurt wearing a ballet tutu while hosting a 1994 segment on skating costumes)

** "This is the worst sight a skater can see--the ceiling of the arena...The first thing that happens when you fall is you hear that collective 'awww!' from the audience. I hate that sound!" (Kurt hosting a 1994 segment on falling)

** "In fact, sometimes...you get up and go before you even know what happened. You're in your next move of a program and you say, 'Why is my butt cold?'" (Kurt hosting a 1994 segment on falling)

** "If there's 3 falls, you're not worried about getting up. You're worried about what hurts!" (Kurt hosting a 1994 segment on falling)

** "One good thing about wearing this suit is you can get away with whatever you want, because only an idiot would dress like this!" (during a "Here I Am" performance at 1995 Skate the Nation)

** "It's very important for the skaters--I mean us--to have a very good warmup. Okay, I'm coming!...I really gotta go!" (Kurt trying to commentate and warm up at the same time during the 1995 Rock and Roll Championships)

** "If you'd like to borrow my Brickhouse pants...anytime!" (one of the "campaign promises" Kurt made to fans during the 1996 Great Skate Debate)

** "Seriously, Canada hasn't done very well in this competition in the past. I mean, the United States has been second. Quit complaining, we've been last! So we really want to improve on that." (1996 World Team Championships interview)

** "There's a reason why this happened to me and I think that it's so that we wouldn't have a problem with who skates last on Stars on Ice." (Kurt referring to his 1994 Olympic performance during a 1996 CBS interview)

** "I don't smoke so..." (Kurt explaining why he's never made a lot of New Year's resolutions during a 1996 Canadian Pros interview)

** "Oui, c'est trËs bon pour...ce soir...je m'appelle...nervous!" (Kurt attempting to describe--in French--how he felt before his technical program at 1996 World Pros)

** "I'd rather talk about how I skated just now!" (Kurt's response after Elfi Schelgal again brought up the subject of his 'forgotten program' at 1997 Ultimate Four even though Kurt had just performed a strong artistic program)

** "It's thanks to Scott Hamilton and the image that he created for skating that it's given me the confidence I need...to wear a suit like this!" (from the special tribute version of "Here I Am" that Kurt performed during "Scott Hamilton: Back on The Ice

** "Scooter is such a hero of mine, I don't even mind losing my hair!" (another quote from Kurt's "Back On The Ice" version of "Here I Am")

** "It took 4 years for the rest of the world to get a team to skate strong enough to beat the United States!" (TVA interview after 1997 Ice Wars)

** "I won another World (Professional) title--I'm just lucky that Brian Boitano's getting older faster than I am!" (1998 "Open Mike" interview)

** "I just noticed I like doing interviews with you more when my skates are on--I feel taller!" (TVA interview after 1998 US Pros)

** "If you have a quad that night, great, you do it. If you had one 10 years ago, well, you don't worry about it anymore!" (CBC interview from 1998 World Pros)

** "Well, we did eleven (Canadian SOI) shows. This country needs more cities." (from a 1999 Gabareau Live interview--and since I don't live close enough to any of the larger Canadian cities to see SOI in person, I couldn't agree more with this statement!)

** "I must have been one of the most obnoxious, bigheaded, 20-something year-old kids in the world..." (Kurt describing his state of mind at 1991 Worlds during a 1999 TSN interview for "100 Years of Canadian Sports")

** "I wish everybody could find something that amuses them as much as I have. The feeling that I have for skating is kind of like being in love...because I sure love this sport!" (Tall in the Saddle)

** "Every time I step on the ice, I can be whatever I want to be. It's up to me. I love that." (Tall In The Saddle)

** "Sometimes my skating allows me to do things I never dreamed possible." (You Must Remember This)

** "Do you know when I was little, I was never worried about what I was gonna be when I grew up. Do you know why? Because I just thought I could be whatever I want to be. So could you--and don't let anybody tell you any different!" (Kurt addressing a group of kids in "You Must Remember This")

** "(Skating) gives me so much. It gives me that challenge I want when I want to compete, or I could be an actor and I could be whatever I want to be. It's not always fun and games. It's not always easy. There's hard times. But when the hard times come...I try and smile and if I can't smile on my own, I get a friend to make me laugh!" (Kurt addressing a group of kids in "You Must Remember This")

** "When I think about my career and my life, the Olympic gold or a medal, whatever, it just doesn't really figure in. Not after what happened in Albertville...and I don't really need that Olympic medal to be happy..." (from a 1994 CTV Coca-Cola portrait which aired, ironically, just before Kurt's Olympic short program)

** "I don't think that I have the right to feel that I need anything else to be complete. I don't have that right--not when...I meet families that are losing their children, I meet kids that have never walked. I meet people in hospitals that are terminal in 6 months. What gives me the right with my career and the people that love me and the fun that I've done, TV shows I've made, different countries I've travelled to. I'm not being a martyr here but I don't think I deserve any more...if it doesn't happen, I'm not gonna wimp out for 6 months feeling sorry for myself, I'm gonna party that night because life's too good." (from a 1994 Coca-Cola portrait)

** "...had I gone to 2 Olympic games and not come home with an Olympic medal in any other country I don't think I would have been loved as much as by the Canadian people. Thank you so much. I didn't need those medals to go out in front of Canada and skate my heart out." (Kurt officially announcing his retirement from eligible skating in 1994)

** "I was at the gold medal match the other day for Canada and I was sitting there beside my mom and dad...I didn't know that that was going to be a big moment in my life with my parents. We sat there, we watched the game, we were so proud of our team. 3 periods and an overtime later, we lost, but I noticed that the 3 of us were talking more about how they fought, how they weren't expected to be there and how we loved them even more. And then we stood up and said 'goodbye' and I realized that this wasn't any normal goodbye. I'm going to see them in a month and a half but I'm never going to see them the same way; for 17 years my parents and I have been playing...that same hockey game. And at the very end in practically what was a shootout, we didn't come up with that medal, but we still feel the same way...so thanks, Mom and Dad and my family, for not caring whether or not we scored that overtime goal." (Kurt thanking his family during his 1994 retirement press conference)

** "...there's lots of different kinds of Olympic gold medals...if I would have had the same feeling with a gold medal around my neck that I had at the end of my long program at Lillehammer, it would have felt as good, but I admit every time I saw someone else in the Village with their medal around their neck, it hurt just a little bit." (from Kurt's 1994 retirement press conference)

** "All those hours spent alone on a rink is where a skater's strength comes from. That's where a standing ovation starts--and if you don't really want to be there, it's gonna show and nothing that you dreamed about is gonna happen if you forget why you started in the first place. You got to skate with your heart and before anyone can believe in you, you're going to have to believe in yourself." (You Must Remember This)

** "I just think that it's gonna be unfortunate that so many times I'm gonna have to talk about the fact that I didn't win because it's a curiosity for people but if I wasn't a whole person, if I wasn't who I wanted to be before I went to Lillehammer, coming home with a medal wasn't gonna make me that person. So I didn't need it. I've got people around me that love me. So I can go now?" (from Kurt's 1994 retirement press conference)

** "That was my medal." (Kurt describing how he felt about carrying the flag at the 1994 Olympics opening ceremonies)

** "I was so emotional at that time that I wasn't making a full-blown apology to a nation...but that's an honest response...I didn't feel bad about myself...but it is a certain responsibility, don't you think, when you represent your country at the Olympic Games...when I miss a jump or I don't skate well, that beautiful moment, that relationship between skater and audience, it's gone and it's really hard to get that back. Only when it's competition it's *really* gone. It's over--and I was sorry about that." (Kurt explaining why he apologized on national TV after his 1994 Olympic SP during an interview with Terry Leibel)

Kurt thanking everyone involved in the "made-in-Canada" gold medal he received in 1994:
** "Neither of the two Olympic medals that didn't come my way were half as gorgeous as this is. This is just so full of thought and love."

** "This is going to be, for me, such a wonderful culmination of all the love I've been shown from all my fans...It's going to be something that really is not going to go in the trophy case. It's going to be in my home."

** "...Kurt always has confidence, he always skates well, but you know what, he didn't have confidence and he wasn't skating well. So my goal this year was, in 1995, to skate better, to feel better, to be healthy and to have fun again--to step on the ice and to really have fun. And that's what I'm doing." (from the 1995 "Get What You Need" video)

** "That's one of the things that's so powerful and so strong and so rewarding about being a performer--is just hoping like h**l that someone's talking about you in the car on the way home." (from the 1995 "Get What You Need" video)

** "None of what we do on the ice matters. It's love and caring and I think Katia (Gordeeva) taught us all that once again. And we're all so lucky to skate. But when we look back, I think we're all laughing now because we realize we're so lucky." (from a 1996 CBS interview with Scott Hamilton, Brian Boitano and Viktor Petrenko)

** "Actually, I've only made one, ever; one New Year's resolution--really, a real one...1994 was really one of the craziest, crappiest years of my entire life, not really my life, but my skating career. My life's been great! But I swore in 1994 and at midnight, I went really weird and just swore I was gonna be happier, that I was never going to let my skating really control how happy I was as a person and it was a good resolution. It's really the only one that I've really made and actually stuck to. 2 years later and I'm doing much better--but that whole year, man, I just was totally unhappy!" (Kurt describing the only New Year's resolution he's ever made during a 1996 Canadian Pros interview

** "My decision was easy--become a hockey player, don't be successful and get killed or go for figure skating. So it wasn't a tough choice." (from "The Making of Snowden On Ice")

** "I was closest to the Olympic gold medal in the parking lot of the Olympic Village when I found out that Viktor (Petrenko) and Brian (Boitano) hadn't skated to their best...I skate down the ice, I do a triple-axel, triple-toe and I had the Olympic gold medal. But I didn't have my first world championship until I went out and took it...I didn't have the first quad, I wasn't in the Guinness Book. I didn't have all those things until I made them happen and you know what, I didn't make an Olympic medal happen. But I wouldn't trade that for any of the things that I did do." (CBS interview from 1997 Canadian Pros)

** "...I'm OK with it, I really am. It bugs me sometimes, I'm not lying. You never know when it's going to hit you, every once in awhile you go, 'Why did I do that?' But then it goes away!" (Kurt on not winning an Olympic medal during a CBS interview at 1997 Canadian Pros)

** "I like where I am now better. I like the full program, I like trying to pull stuff out of people, I want to make people smile and I want to do big jumps too, but my priorities have shifted...it's a little bit less about whether or not I'm World Professional Champion and a little bit more about 'Am I better than I was last year?' I hope I can keep that up for a couple more years!" (CBS interview from 1997 Canadian Pros)

** "You think of an Olympic champion and I easily think Michelle Kwan, but the Olympics is just such a strange place--you never know what's going to happen." (Kurt making an interesting prediction about the ladies' event at the 1998 Olympics)

** "...I didn't think that these 5 guys were gonna make any mistakes at all." (Kurt inadvertently giving away the fact that Eric Millot was chacked from the 1997 World Pros broadcast during a NBC interview)

"I take care of myself, I try really hard to respect other people, I represent my country as best I can. I can't always respect people when they ask for autographs because it's not always the perfect situation, but, you know, I was brought up with manners and I do the best that I can and I hear good things and when I hear bad things, I try to do something about it." (1998 TVA interview)

** "Christmas is picking up the phone and hearing a voice you haven't heard for months, finding 2 or 3 or maybe just 1 perfect gift. It doesn't even have to be for your mother or someone special; it could be for your coach or for the doorman or just something that you know really didn't have to cost too much money but really, really made someone's Christmas. And I've always been more excited about giving of the gifts than getting, but that doesn't necessarily mean I give good gifts. I'm quite renowned in my family for giving terrible gifts!" (from 1994 Holiday Festival on Ice)

Kurt: Yeah, who is it? Uh...hi Kat.
Katarina: Guys, we're going to kick you butts.
Kurt: Thanks...okay, see you out there.... Huddle up, huddle up guys. I'm a little worried. Katarina says she's gonna kick our butts.
Josef: So?
Kurt: So here's the plan..... keep your butts away from Katarina

~~~ Battle of the Sexes on Ice II

Scott: Who's better, women or men?
Kurt: *snort* Oh, okay, that's a real question, I guess.
Rosalynn: We have more... hair than most of the guys.
Scott: They're hungry, they're bitter.
Liz: We've got a good group of girls. I think its gonna be tough.
Kurt: Oh, this is easy, they're WOMEN.
Paul: Its a good team. Its a good representation... of testosterone.
Rosalynn: I think the girls are really gonna have to pull out all the stops. Big smiles. Big hair.
Kristi: And with some sex appeal. So, I dunno, I guess we'll try that.
Scott: They are scantily clad....and they USE that.
Kurt: Other than that, it's not a problem.

~~~ Battle of the Sexes on Ice I

Kurt: Yeah, I mean....Scott, that was unbelievable. He pulled that out of his bag, he hasn't really done that in about 30 years.
Brian: 31, I think.
Scott: It's okay, really....... I LANDED A TRIPLE FLIP!!

~~~Battle of the Sexes on Ice I

Katarina: Well, Kurt, the ladies are ready for the challenge tonight.
Kurt: Well, Kat, the guys are always ready for the ladies.

~~~ Battle of the Sexes on Ice II

Kurt: The source of why people love figure skating is really the men.
Kat: *Laughs*
Kurt: We don't have to flaunt it. We proved it last year, and we're just gonna have to prove it again.
Kat: Well, we'll have to see how the audience and the judges will vote on that.
Josef: Well, they certainly look better than we do, you know, no matter what the hell we do.
Katia: We are woman.
Kurt: Well, that just changes everything..... We're gonna lose.
Kat: Yes, it's a battle, but its a fun battle.
Kurt: I don't know what they have that we don't have.
Kat: Long beautiful legs.
Kurt: We're....we're....we're.....uh.....
Kat: Maybe we'll have to wiggle a little more.
Kurt: They need us. Its like aluminum siding. You may not like it, but ya need it.

~~~ Battle of the Sexes on Ice II

Debbi Wilkes: "Is there anything you can't do?"
Kurt: "Well, I can't go to the bathroom right now and they're telling me I have to."

~~from an interview Kurt gave shortly after winning 1993 Canadians

Rod Black: "Every time you skate at a competition, we're talking about your back. How is it?"
Kurt: "I figured it out; my back is allergic to competition!"

~~1993 Skate Canada interview

Dini Petty: "Do you remember your first pair of skates?" Kurt: "They were my brother's, so I had to give them back, but he painted them blue, I don't know why--sorry, Wade!"

~~1994 Dini Petty show interview

Andrea Joyce: "You skated beautifully out there today--what was the difference?"
Kurt: "Lloyd (Eisler) hit me before I skated and it made all the difference."

~~1994 World Team Championships interview

Kurt: "What's wrong?"
JosÈe (referring to a "rejected Canadian flag design" with two hockey sticks and a puck in the middle): "It just made me think about the Nordiques."
Kurt: "It's all right, hon, they've gone to a warmer place."

~~1995 Canada Day celebrations

Kurt yelling trimphantly: "Champion of the World!"
Paul Wylie: "Like you've never been champion of the world!"
Kurt: "This is totally different. I never, ever thought I'd win one of these."
Paul: "A turkey platter! You get a good one, too...these are awesome!"
Kurt: "Do you get to keep it?"
Paul: "You get to keep it."
Kurt: "Cool!"

~~Kurt's reaction to winning World Pros for the first time in 1995

Katia Gordeeva describing her "Beauty and the Beast" TV special: "...the Beast was Viktor Petrenko..."
Kurt: "He was a beast when I competed against him, too!"

~~1996 satellite interview with Kurt and Katia

"You look tired but happy."
"Well, yeah, I'm a little tired but I think I'm just excited, you know, it's so much fun out there!"
"Yeah, you were looking like you were having a good time--a little problem in the middle."
"Well, actually, I was kind of hoping to do a triple axel but then I actually forgot my program!"
"No!"
"Yeah, I did--then I put in a triple-toe triple-toe and I figured that's a good way to fix it."
"Wow, that's great--you're only 2 tenths behind Scott." "Oh, that's cool--it's pretty tough..."
"Well, good luck!"
"Thank you."

~~Kurt interviewing himself at the 1996 Rock and Roll Championships

Kurt: I wish I was in this number!
Rosalynn Sumners: (Three Women is) about being really good friends and supporting each other and just being women and enjoying being a woman and having fun.
Kurt: I can identify with that!
Roz: You can??
Kurt: Well, I can watch!

~~backstage at the 1997 Canadian Stars on Ice tour

Francois Gariepy: "You're making things very difficult for me, you know."
Kurt: "It's because I don't speak French, isn't it?"

~~TVA interview after 1997 Canadian Pros

Francois Gariepy: "I know you a lot now--I think I know you enough..."
Kurt: "Yeah, we've been through a lot together, haven't we?"

~~TVA interview from 1998 World Pros

Kurt: (Katarina Witt is) more like a man than a woman...
Vicki Gabareau: Excuse me?? (starts flipping through Playboy)
Kurt: Yeah. Halfway through a sentence have you ever wanted to rip it out of the air and put it back in your mouth?!

~~from a 1999 Gabareau Live interview

Toller Cranston: "You seem to have a tremendous rapport with all the skaters...particularly in the top 3. Is that honest?"
Kurt: "Oh, definitely! I can't fake a friendship. I can't do anything fake really. If I say something, it's real."

~~from an interview at 1990 Worlds Reporter:

Reporter: "What does it mean to you to have gone to 2 Olympics and not had that moment?"
Kurt: "Well, I think I'd prefer to be standing here and bragging instead of standing here talking about it, but one thing is to me it's taught me so much. I got a fax from Barbie Underhill and...I realized that the gold medal doesn't mean a hill of beans and your health and your family and friends are even more important...you have no gold medal in your hand, you have to look for something else and I didn't have to look very far."

~~from Kurt's 1994 retirement press conference

**Give him 12s!! ~~ Rosalynn Sumners (Battle of the Sexes on Ice II)

**Oh, his facial expressions are priceless.

**Yeah, I know.... it's a "dirty" job, but somebody's got to do it... I guess I'll just have to watch that tape over and over and over again, just to make sure you got things right, 'cause it's so easy to get sidetracked when Kurt's on camera. I believe in doing my part for my country, my flag, my Kurt... ~~ Mary

**I actually got on-ice seats for the 1994 Edmonton SOI show, where, for the finale, they did the medley called "Sooner or Later". In it, Kurt, Brian Orser, and Kristi Y were at the far end of the ice in bowler hats, and black
and white outfits. The girls, Katarina Witt, in particular came down to their (Kurt, Brian, and Kristi's) end very seductively, skating around them. A couple of girls had made their pass, and, as Katarina was making her way
down, Kurt turned to us (the audience seated on the ice) and passionately said, "I hate my job! I HATE my job!!!" It was too funny! ~~ Shelly

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