"If you get up in the morning and nothing bothers you, you’re dead."

"I'd like someone who will take care of me, sit with me, and watch TV. ha! I'm making her sound like a baby sitter!"

"I will never leave St. Petersburg to train in Moscow, or like Kulik leave Russia to train in America... I love my country."

"Whatever you do in this life is not for yourself. It's not always about yourself. It's for other people."

"Comparatively calm, but I can't criticize myself because I am a lazy person. This is probably most irritating for my mama. Her requests that I wash the dishes or take out the garbage would have just as much success as if she asked a bronze statue. In this moment, I am deaf to any critical remark." (on taking criticism)

"I like to skate fast. I like to drive fast. I mean, that's my personality"

"The harder the training, the better the results. When the ice is bad and the bus to the rink is late, that only makes you stronger physically."

"At some time, you realize you have everything in skating, and now you must skate for the people and take that role more seriously. That is how I feel."

"I want to thank my mom... well for delivering me first and then for putting me into this sport"

"I'm a lazy person. Not on the ice, but in regular life."

"That is why I was working to get the Olympic title. It all pays off. You have a dinner and you get the dessert at the end. I am getting the dessert."

"If I could change one thing in the world, I would make everyone understand what it's like to fall 100 times, and stand when most needed"

"The more you win, more people look at you and more people expect you to skate clean, but like.... ice is slippery and auh... it's hard to be perfect all the time. I'm trying to be, but still, it's impossible."

"One minute can decide everything in your life."

"Everyone has their something special"

"Actually I knew that I won after the first combination in the free program. But when I was done and I was bowing, I was in shock, so I wasn't that emotional. Then at the end, I began to jump, because then that feeling of "Yes, I won!" came into my mind. And then I began to cry."

"I was unbelievably tired. It wasn't sudden tiredness, but a feeling that over the whole season strength had been escaping from me and none of it was left at all."