I had true rivalries. Not only did I want to beat my opponent, but I didn't want to let him up, either. I had a rivalry with Mac, Lendl, Borg. Everybody knew there was tension between us, on court and off. That's what's really ingrained in my mind: 'This is real. This isn't a soft rivalry.' There were no hugs and kisses.

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.

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

I'm not begging to be remembered or whatever. I did my thing, and if you remember, that's even better. But if you don't, there's so many other things going on.

When you're hot, anything can happen.

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

Experience is a great advantage. The problem is that when you get the experience, you're too damned old to do anything about it.