Quotes by Steve Prefontaine

A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more.

A race is a work of art that people can look at and be affected in as many ways as they're capable of understanding.

How does a kid from Coos Bay, with one leg longer than the other win races? All my life people have been telling me, 'Your too small Pre', 'Your not fast enough Pre', 'Give up your foolish dream Steve'. But they forgot something, I have to win.

I don't just go out there and run. I like to give people watching something exciting.

I'm going to work so that it's a pure guts race at the end, and if it is, I am the only one who can win it.

Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run. I like to make people stop and say, 'I've never seen anyone run like that before.' It's more than just a race, it's a style. It's doing something better than anyone else. It's being creative.

Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it.

Something inside of me just said 'Hey, wait a minute, I want to beat him,' and I just took off.

To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.

What I want is to be number one.

You have to wonder at times what you're doing out there. Over the years, I've given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement.