My potential is more than can be expressed within the bounds of my race or ethnic identity.

I have tried to keep on with my striving because this is the only hope I have of ever achieving anything worthwhile and lasting.

If I don't ask "Why me?" after my victories, I cannot ask "Why me?" after my setbacks and disasters.

One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.

Every time you win, it diminishes the fear a little bit. You never really cancel the fear of losing; you keep challenging it.

Some folks call tennis a rich people's sport or a white person's game. I guess I started too early because I just thought it was something fun to do. Later, I discovered there was a lot of work to being good in tennis. You've got to make a lot of sacrifices and spend a lot of time if you really want to achieve with this sport, or in any sport, or in anything truly worthwhile.

We blacks look for leadership in men and women of such youth and inexperience, as well as poverty of education and character, that it is no wonder that we sometimes seem rudderless.... We see basketball players and pop singers as possible role models, when nothing could be further, in most cases, from their capacities.