From where we lived, to practise in St Louis was an hour-and-a-half drive each way, so that took a lot of the time. So really, our lives just took different paths.

It's one-on-one out there, man. There ain't no hiding. I can't pass the ball.

I let my racket do the talking. That's what I am all about, really. I just go out and win tennis matches.

Success is walking out of here with the title, and anything less is not good enough in my book.

You kind of live and die by the serve.

I never wanted to be the great guy or the colorful guy or the interesting guy. I wanted to be the guy who won titles.

Anybody who has played sports and says they have never choked is lying to you.

The only person that I have met, that I have ever been in awe of, is Eddie Vedder.

I always insist on my jeans being ironed. Is that a problem?

People don't seem to understand that it's a damn war out there.

Tennis would be much more exciting if they had pitching machines firing Tennis was given to me to keep me off the street corners of east St. Louis.

With everything else that would swirl around me when I got involved in it, tennis was my main concern.

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.

I like any title with the letters U.S. in front of it. To me, the U.S. Open is the most important tournament in the world.

For the last five or six years the most important thing in my life has been my family.

The trouble with experience is that by the time you have it you are too old to take advantage of it.

When you're hot, anything can happen.

But why should I read what somebody else thinks of my life when I know the real story?

I've been kicked in the teeth more times in tennis than the law ought to allow.