The first big break was winning a scholarship to go to Cambridge University. I was very lucky because my parents couldn't have afforded a university education for me. Without a scholarship I couldn't possibly have gone.

The American education system couldn't be more badly directed or poorly funded if the Secretary of Education were Ed Wood.

You know in 1975 I couldn't get a job in New York City because I was American. The kitchens were predominantly run by French Swiss German and basically I got laughed at. I had education I had experience but got laughed at because I was American.

Education is a wonderful thing. If you couldn't sign your name you'd have to pay cash.

I was delighted to not go to university. I couldn't wait to be out of education.

I think what every skater dreams of is not only skating the best program they can possibly skate but y'know having the crowd roar at the end and it was just so loud I couldn't even hear my music.

Field of Dreams is the only movie - and I saw it in the theater - on an afternoon when I was on location somewhere and there were like 12 people in the theater. I was just so devastated I couldn't get out of my seat. And I sat and watched it a second time.

I couldn't help but to think back to my classmates at Thomas Jefferson High School in San Antonio. They had the same talent the same brains the same dreams as the folks we sat with at Stanford and Harvard. I realized the difference wasn't one of intelligence or drive. The difference was opportunity.

When I look back over my life it's almost as if there was a plan laid out for me - from the little girl who was so passionate about animals who longed to go to Africa and whose family couldn't afford to put her through college. Everyone laughed at my dreams. I was supposed to be a secretary in Bournemouth.

Dreams do come true even for someone who couldn't speak English and never had a music lesson or much of an education.