No matter where I go, I always feel unwanted eyes following me. It's a dirty world out there.

In the world's eyes, what they know of me is from the blogs. What they know is from the media.

My parents wouldn't have sent me out into the world with wool over my eyes. You have to be aware, or you'll be swallowed.

I grew up listening to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, and it took me getting out into the real world and understanding what I faced as a woman in my career to really open up my eyes.

At 16 years old, I was signed to my very first modeling agency. That was my first real introduction to the entertainment industry. It really opened my eyes to a world that was available to me.

Had you met me when I was 18 I was very, very patriotic almost to the point of sounding a little bit bigoted or racist, but then I moved away, came to London, my eyes were opened and I saw the world.

When I had a child, everyone was telling me that I was going to see the world through her eyes, and everything was going to get this nice gloss to it. I kept waiting for that to happen, and thought there was a real problem with me that it wasn't.

Most of us who have healthy eyesight are extremely attached to our vision, often without being conscious that we are. We depend heavily on our eyes, and yet we rarely give them a second thought. I, at least, am this way. The physical world is almost hyper-vivid to me.

In my eyes, I will never be up there with the Sir Steve Redgraves and the Sir Chris Hoys of this world. It's not something that drives me; I just enjoy going to the Olympic Games. Just to be mentioned in the same breath as those people is an honour for me. I don't ever think about those kind of things.

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