Competitive toughness is an acquired skill and not an inherited gift.

To be a tennis champion, you have to be inflexible. You have to be stubborn. You have to be arrogant. You have to be selfish and self-absorbed. Kind of tunnel vision almost.

You've got to take the initiative and play your game. In a decisive set, confidence is the difference.

My first U.S. Open I think was just very special for me because that was sort of the beginning of what was a 'Cinderella' story for me.

When I play, I'm boiling inside. I just try not to show it because it's a lack of composure, and if you give in to your emotions after one loss, you're liable to have three or four in a row.

If you're a champion, you have to have it in your heart.

Find something that you're really interested in doing in your life. Pursue it, set goals, and commit yourself to excellence. Do the best you can.

You can't give up! If you give up, you're like everybody else.

Whatever your goal in life, be proud of every day that you are able to work in that direction.

The difference is almost all mental. The top players just hate to lose. I think that's the difference. A champion hates to lose even more than she loves to win.

Ninety percent of my game is mental. It's my concentration that has gotten me this far.

Artists are the shamans of our time.

Be selfless to find yourself.

Let's make a deal, if you don't blame me for your failures I won't take credit for your successes.

Depression, the Cancer that gnaws at your Body, Mind and Soul.

I think technology really increased human ability. But technology cannot produce compassion.

The Greeks had invented democracy, built the Acropolis and called it a day.

I once saw Arnold Schwarzenegger kill a man in a movie by grabbing his head and twisting it until the neck broke. Was that difficult? Could a man do it without a lot of practice?

I think forgiveness is absolutely mandatory. When you don't forgive the only person you are hurting is yourself because you are still harboring the anger and the mental anguish.

...Attempts at imitation would put the emphasis where it didn't belong. The goal was to improve the lives of others, not oneself.