When I was eight and a half, my parents moved to a part of Queens where there was a club nearby. We joined, and if you believe in someone up above, I think I was meant to play tennis.
I was a different kind of player as a kid and didn't do too much shouting and screaming. If things didn't go my way, I tended to get a bit overwhelmed. All I wanted to do was cry on my mom's shoulder. I didn't know how to handle defeat in front of a crowd, and I didn't want to be the loser.
This taught me a lesson, but I'm not quite sure what it is.
We should reach out to people to try to go after the fans the way other sports do. Because we can't just depend on the fact that it is a great game.
I'll let the racket do the talking.
Sometimes my negativity worked to my advantage, and early in my career, it got me going. But you need to understand that you're not just fighting opponents, you're also fighting yourself.
What I've realised is that you can run miles, jump on a bike, lift weights, and all that other garbage, but the bottom line is that you get in tennis shape by playing tennis. You build the right muscles, and I don't believe people can do it as successfully any other way.
Believe it or not, I was a pretty shy youngster growing up.
I think it's the mark of a great player to be confident in tough situations.
I believe there's only one autobiography you can do.
My best tennis at my peak was when I played a lot of matches.
As I got older and started moving up the ranking, the matches got more important, and my emotions ratcheted up. I guess I hid my real feelings behind the anger.
I used to take pride if my kids were playing basketball, and I'd be there, and I wouldn't say anything. People were obviously expecting me to yell and scream at the ref and at them and everything. I wouldn't say anything.
It means a lot to be back in New York. Particularly since one of the last senior event scheduled in the States was supposed to be here in New York. We were supposed to play in Central Park right after 9-11 and when 9-11 happened obviously things changed.
Roland Garros is the only one of the four majors that is 15 days, and that is too long.
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.
They would go back and listen to my matches, and two days later, I'd be fined. Because no one heard it while it was being played, but they heard it on some mic behind the court. Is that the way it should be? I don't think so.
Jack Nicholson didn't get anything until he was in his thirties. You have to persevere and put yourself in positions, and sooner or later, you will break through.
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.
Kyrgios has got to look in the mirror if he wants to become a top player and win Grand Slams.
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.
I've never seen a good tennis movie. They all were terrible.
You're asking too much of the women. They shouldn't be playing as many events as men. If tennis is best served by women playing events with men, so be it.
Nick Kyrgios, if you don't want to be a professional tennis player, do something else.
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.
You have to keep persevering. An actor goes to a lot of auditions and doesn't get the part.
If you look at the top 100 players, you would see that the great majority of them have had at least a couple of surgeries. That tells me that we have to protect the players.
Sitting there clapping and smiling... it's difficult. You're like, 'Don't worry about it, you just double faulted, you just played a really dumb point. Keep positive.' Then more clapping. That would annoy me as a player.
Things slow down, the ball seems a lot bigger and you feel like you have more time. Everything computes - you have options, but you always take the right one.
The perception is I didn't get along with umpires, obviously, and I didn't, on the court. But off the court, we had a good vibe.
Women have it better in tennis than any other sport, but you shouldn't push them to play more than they're capable of playing.
I'm 56 years old. I like to get out on the court. I continue to try to play the best I can. Obviously, I'm nowhere near where I was when half this age. But I can still hit a pretty decent ball.
I can barely remember what I was like 36 years ago when I was 21 years old.
