Johnson: "I've always been a leader my whole life. I've always led. I didn't know how to do anything else."

Johnson: "I motivate others by making sure that they understand to go after their dreams and don't let anyone tell you you can't. If you are motivated enough and put the work in that you can achieve anything in life that you set your mind to."

Johnson: "Ask not what your teammates can do for you. Ask what you can do for your teammates."

Johnson: "I have to tell you, I'm proudest of my life off the court. There will always be great basketball players who bounce that little round ball, but my proudest moments are affecting people's lives, effecting change, being a role model in the community."

Johnson: "The audience likes their emotions to be touched. They want to laugh and cry and feel good."

Johnson: "If somebody says no to you, or if you get cut, Michael Jordan was cut his first year, but he came back and he was the best ever. That is what you have to have. The attitude that I'm going to show everybody, I'm going to work hard to get better and better."

Johnson: "When you are honest and open with young people, they let you in."

Johnson: "I tell people to look at me and understand that everybody first told me that I couldn't be a 6-foot, 9-inch point guard, and I proved them wrong. Then they told me I couldn't be a businessman and make money in urban America, and I proved them wrong. And they thought I couldn't win all these championships, and I proved them wrong there as well."

Johnson: "If you're a competitive person, that stays with you. You don't stop. You always look over your shoulder."

Johnson: "I wanted to do two things when I was growing up, about your age. I wanted to play in the NBA, and I wanted to be a businessman after my basketball career was over, and that is what I am doing now."

Johnson: "Life doesn't stop because something happens to you."

Johnson: "Everyone thought I was going to die like a year later, they didn't know. So I helped educate sports, and then the world, that a man living with HIV can play basketball. He's not going to give it to anybody by playing basketball."

Johnson: "Just celebrate the life you had, not the life you could've had."

Johnson: "All students should have the opportunity to receive their high school diplomas and be fully prepared for college or the workplace."

Johnson: "All kids need is a little help, a little hope and somebody who believes in them."

Johnson: "I do not have bad days. I don't wake up in the morning and think that I'm going to get AIDS. I don't dream bad dreams about it. If I did, I'd be giving in to the negativity."

Johnson: "I like things going on in my life. I don't want to be on a beach somewhere just relaxing."

Johnson: "As an athlete, I understood the value of my health insurance. I knew that in my profession, injuries were common and could happen at any time."

Johnson: "I look three to five years ahead, not 10 years behind."