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.

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.

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.

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

And I wondered if love was too weak a word for what he felt, what he’d done for me. For what I felt for him.

It is not worth an intelligent man's time to be in the majority. By definition, there are already enough people to do that.

The technological man is limited as his tools. The man without technologies is limitless.

People who other people value get job offers, they get opportunities, and they get encouragement all because they are valued.

There seems to be a lot of name-calling going on, but I want to remind you what our good dad told me one time. Labels are for soup cans.

The more bad choices you make, the less bad your choices seem.

I've seen and learned enough to keep my music fresh and spread out.

I'm not really part of that 'L.A. thing' or that celebrity culture. I'm more like someone who observes it, and I can't ever imagine being like that.

In the end it happens, in some way you couldn't imagine before.

Humble yourself"--it is a humbling experience to knock at God's door--you have to knock with the crucified thief. "To him that knocketh, it shall be opened.