I wanted to be a neurologist. That seemed to be the most difficult, most intriguing, and the most important aspect of medicine, which had links with ….

I was always a great bundle of energy. As a child, instead of walking, I would run. And so running, which is a pain to a lot of people, was always a ….

Mothers, unless they were very poor, didn't work. Both of my parents had to leave education. My mother had to work in a cotton mill until 18 or 19, w….

May is a very early time in the year and the weather is usually bad. You cannot run a fast mile race if there is a strong wind, because it makes your….

I lived on the top of one hill and the school was at the top of another hill. Nobody ever went to school by car - we didn't have any cars during the ….

The man who goes on, even when it's the hardest to be the winner..

The human spirit is indomitable. No one can ever say you must not run faster than this or jump higher than that. There will never be a time when th….

I found longer races boring. I found the mile just perfect..

We run, not because we think it is doing us good, but because we enjoy it and cannot help ourselves.

I couldn't disappoint people. I did not want to fail and exhaust myself, because I was the kind of runner who trained so little that I couldn't race ….

The Athletic Association competed against the University. So there was an event. You cannot break world records unless it is an established event, an….

My family actually lived in the same village for about 400 years. They had great stability until the last century. People lived and intermarried in s….

I was playing rugby and the other games English school children do, and there was an event which was planned in which races were run, and I simply ju….

Every time I ran the mile I was aware of my own weakness, there was some opponent who could give me a hell of a fight, so I never went into a race wi….

I think that is a universal adolescent feeling, trying to find your place. The adolescent who is perfectly adjusted to his environment, I've yet to m….

Just because they say it's impossible doesn't mean you can't do it..

Athletics is a luxury..

Beating John Landy was my defining race..

It had always been a British preoccupation to hold this mile record..

The mile has all the elements of a drama..

No longer conscious of my movement, I discovered a new unity with nature. I had found a new source of power and beauty, a source I never dreamt exist….