You look at a guy like Michael Jordan: I can't believe there will be other basketball players like him.
— John McEnroe
I was always taught that you needed to be intense and never lose your focus.
What made my matches against Borg and Connors interesting was, comparing it to boxing, it was like a puncher and a counter-puncher.
If they think I'm better at commentating than I was as a player, then I must be pretty darned good at commentating.
When I felt I was rejected by my first wife, and she said, 'Some day you will thank me for this,' you know what? I do. And so, sometimes it is darkest before the dawn. You can think it is bleak and you can't see. You never know.
Nadal and Roger Federer have great respect for each other. I think Novak Djokovic gets under those two guys' skin a little bit, and maybe they don't want to admit it, and I think that's, in a way, healthy.
I happened to be one of those guys who doesn't play much golf.
I'm a tell-it-like-it-is kind of person; I don't like being misled or someone not telling the truth. That upsets me.
I'd never left America until I was 18.
I went on safari in South Africa just after apartheid had ended.
I like to be close to water and the ocean, particularly. I love to get out and body surf. I like mountain biking, too.
I can barely remember what I was like 36 years ago when I was 21 years old.
What I think is frustrating for Americans is that it feels like more was going to change with Obama.
Tennis was a white, upper-class sport, and I wanted it to be treated like other sports were.
I was always fighting the establishment, trying to run through brick walls.
I thought if I looked back and evaluated my life, it would help me in the future.
I didn't serve and volley until I got to Wimbledon in '77.
Why don't they go back to wood racquets? Then we would see the best tennis to be played.
If you're out there and things are going badly, are you going to cry or break down?
I'm sure a lot of players say it, but winning is almost so you don't lose. The thrill of winning is not as great as the pain of losing.
You hit a wall at some stage when you don't want it so bad, but you don't know when that's going to be - as far as competition or as far as health is concerned. Sometimes it's just natural. You just taste it, and you want it so bad that you find other gears.
It's only human nature to want to know what you can do on your own or with someone else.
I didn't get along with most of the players I played against, but the one guy I did get along with was my greatest rival, so it can be done.
It's ironic - people used to want to suspend me and talk about how bad my behaviour was, but now they like it when I shout and scream.
When I walk out there on court, I become a maniac... Something comes over me, man.
There's a certain beauty and majesty to Wimbledon. The elegance, the way the grass looks on TV.
London is great, but New York is the greatest city in the world.
I am finicky about making sure my sneakers are pretty tight. It is almost like a superstition for me.
When I came on the tour, I thought, 'Why don't they treat tennis players the same way they look at football players?' Because I've got news for you: when they are on the pitch, they are not saying, 'Hello, how are you?' out there.
I would have thought that a woman would have become president before a black man.
No other athlete in any sport has ever had to go through what I have to.
When I was 15 and playing in Kalamazoo, I ran into a light pole on the side of the court and was knocked out for a little while - when I woke up, I was seeing stars!
I'd like to be the commissioner of tennis, but do I want to get into politics? Sometimes I have delusions of grandeur that that would be an interesting, good thing. I'm talking about actual politics, like being a congressman, but then I see how unbelievably nasty it really is, and maybe I'm not quite knowledgeable enough to actually do it.
When I was 25, if you'd have said I was going to be a commentator, that would seem like, 'Oh, my God. That's a huge step down.'
One of the things I respected about Connors was that one second he would be spewing a four-letter word, the next second he would do something that had people falling off the aisles. Yet he never seemed to lose his concentration.
If you watch a guy go out on court and have a meltdown, you're not going to think, 'Oh my God, now I'm screwed.' Or you're not going to think, 'The umpire's going to give him calls because he's just told him he's an idiot or the pits of the world.'
The sting of losing is bad.
Sometimes you get hungrier when you taste it.
Roland Garros is the only one of the four majors that is 15 days, and that is too long.
The best way I knew how was to give 110% and want it more than them, and walk on the court and every moment of the match feel like it was the end of the world, in a sense. So that worked for me in a lot of ways. There were times that it hurt me, but for the most part, it helped me.
If people do things without thinking them through, that rubs me up the wrong way.
I don't think enough players channel the energy of the crowd. If it's done properly, and you don't let anger overwhelm and distract you, it's like a shot of adrenaline in the arm, and it gets the crowd pumped up.
I remember when I was younger taking more pride in Wimbledon than the French. That and the U.S. Open - they were the ones I wanted to win.
I went to play in Brazil when I had just turned 18 and was the world's top junior player. I got to the airport, and no one knew who I was. I couldn't speak any Portuguese, and no one spoke English. Then someone said something that resembled 'tennis,' and I went with that.
I've never seen a good tennis movie. They all were terrible.
It seems like the richer you are, the more chance you have of paying less tax.
I won't admit to having a poster of Borg on my bedroom door. But I certainly found him to be someone who got me way more into tennis.
I am someone who gets pretty worked up.
I'm generally happy, although my kids and wife may sometimes argue with that.
The greatest compliment I ever got was when people called me an artist, and I understand that solo aspect of being an artist, when you're in there by yourself, trying to do something great, and people who don't even know you can come up and just dump on you.
