Skip to main content

Wit & Attitude Quote by Cathy Freeman

"I lie around the floor with my cats Billy and Jazz or watch DVDs with my best friends"

About this Quote

For someone remembered in motion, Cathy Freeman choosing stillness is the point. The line isn’t trying to be profound; it’s trying to be legible. After years of being treated as a national symbol and a perpetual highlight reel, she frames her private life in the smallest possible units: the floor, two cats with ordinary names, DVDs, best friends. It’s a deliberate downshift from stadium scale to living-room scale, a way of saying: my body is not public property all the time.

The intent reads as boundary-setting disguised as coziness. Athletes are marketed as relentless machines or inspirational archetypes; Freeman offers an image that’s almost aggressively unglamorous. Lying on the floor is a tiny act of refusal against the upright posture of performance. Cats, too, are the perfect supporting cast: affectionate on their own terms, unimpressed by medals. The details matter because they’re anti-brand. “DVDs” dates the quote and, in doing so, anchors it in a pre-streaming era of chosen, finite entertainment - you can’t doomscroll your way into another obligation.

The subtext is also cultural. Freeman carried a freight of expectation - sporting, national, and identity-based - that rarely allows room for plain leisure. By naming mundane comforts, she quietly reclaims authorship over her off-duty self. It’s not confession; it’s camouflage: the language of domestic normalcy used as armor against the endless demand to perform.

Quote Details

TopicBest Friend
SourceHelp us find the source
More Quotes by Cathy Add to List
Cathy Freeman Quote About Home, Cats and Quiet Strength
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

Australia Flag

Cathy Freeman (born February 16, 1973) is a Athlete from Australia.

29 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes

Daniel J. Boorstin, Historian
Daniel J. Boorstin