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.

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.

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.

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

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.

If you cannot change the reality of other people, their reality will become yours.

I only won $250 all summer. And then I got crippled. I had a horse step on me while performing and it was messed up for a while.

If you can rhythmically slow down your breath to four breaths a minute, you can indirectly control your mind and slow it down from its obnoxious behavior.

The body is not the only target of rape. Violence does not always take a visible form, and not all wounds gush blood.

I can't complain, but sometimes I still do.

You can never really know what a guru is as long as you are imprisoned by your own thoughts and circular ego.

The painter makes real to others his innermost feelings about all that he cares for. A secret becomes known to everyone who views the picture through the intensity with which it is felt.

It shows a brave and resolute spirit not to be agitated in exciting circumstances.

Nothing is inevitable in life. People make choices, and those choices have results, and we all live with the results.

There’s nothing under the ground that’s worth more than the little layer of topsoil sitting on top of it.