To stay interested in tennis, I have to mix it up with other things.

Some people say I have attitude - maybe I do... but I think you have to. You have to believe in yourself when no one else does - that makes you a winner right there.

I don't focus on what I'm up against. I focus on my goals and I try to ignore the rest.

Just believe in yourself. Even if you don't, pretend that you do and, at some point, you will.

My motto is: I'm alive, so that means I can do anything.

In my mind, I'm always the best. If I walk out on the court (and) I think the next person is better, I've already lost.

Of course, I want to be number one. But being happy and healthy is the most important thing.

Tennis is mostly mental. Of course, you must have a lot of physical skill, but you can't play tennis well and not be a good thinker. You win or lose the match before you even go out there.

When you lose, you're more motivated. When you win, you fail to see your mistakes and probably no one can tell you anything.

In the sports arena I would say there is nothing like training and preparation. You have to train your mind as much as your body.

If I cared deeply about what people thought of me, I probably would have never made it out of Compton, California.

If I am not for myself, who will be?

Everybody wanted to be the hero of their own story. Nobody wanted to be comic relief.

Prayer is the soul's breathing itself into the bosom of its heavenly Father.

My sister's journal was the romantic one with boys, and mine was talking about my rock tumbler. We were so different and so similar.

No one is black and white or good or bad or happy or sad or what have you. [All have] particular idiosyncrasies that make them fascinating and that's how I tend to approach a character.

I could see flames from the windows of my chambers. For the next three or four days we had major rioting here in Washington and I stayed at the court day and night.

People say I'm around because I have a lot of heart, but I know all the heart in the world couldn't have helped me if I wasn't physically fit.

How long did it take me to delimit this art? Twenty years! ... It was a laborious process, but a methodical and rational one; gradually the hesitations were ironed out, but not all of a sudden.

If you go into a room of 100-plus people, and you want to be the prince of darkness, you can be it. But I don't operate in the dark, I operate in the light.