Joey Chestnut

It was a hard decision to give up a normal job. I worked hard to get through school. You go from building a fire station to an eating contest.

I can't tell you all my secrets to how I can eat so many. Someone out there might copy it. But I will tell you this: The night before the competition, I sleep only four hours. That means when I actually do eat, my stomach will want to digest the food quicker.

Winning tastes pretty good.

Maybe in America there's more of an emphasis on food than there should be. But when I look out at the audience during a competition, some people are shocked, but most people are smiling.

I was able to get a civil engineering degree and travel around the world and eat.

I'm lucky. My parents are, like, super hippies. They were just happy I was going to school and I wasn't getting in trouble.

Honoring our nation's heroes and their caregivers is a cause very important to me - especially on Independence Day.

I remember as a kid watching that movie - 'Cool Hand Luke' - with my grandfather.

I like going to the doctor, being vigilant, being told that I'm healthy so I can push myself.

Pretty much all I'm doing during an eating contest is being uncomfortable and not forgetting to breathe.

I have to learn to ignore my feelings. Not just the feeling of hunger and the feeling of full, but the feeling of embarrassment, too. I have to remember that this is only weird if I make it weird.

Kobayashi won't talk to me. He hates me.