Quotes from Andre Agassi

some people are thermometers, some are thermostats. You're a thermostat. You don't register the temperature in a room, you change it.

No one ever asked me if I wanted to play tennis, let alone make it my life. My father decided long before I was born that I would be a professional tennis player.

Andre, he says, some people are thermometers, some are thermostats. You're a thermostat. You don't register the temperature in a room, you change it. So be confident, be yourself, take charge. Show her your essential self.

Feeling depressed after a loss is one thing, but feeling depressed about nothing, about life in general, is another thing altogether. The minds of the everlasting gods are not changed suddenly

It might not be the right way to end our journey, but it's the best way possible

I've been let in on a dirty little secret: winning changes nothing. Now that I've won a slam, I know something that very few people on earth are permitted to know. A win doesn't feel as good as a loss feels bad, and the good feeling doesn't last as long as the bad. Not even close.

Figuring out your butterflies, deciphering what they say about the status of your mind and body, is the first step to making them work for you.

The tennis bag is a lot like your heart—you have to know what's in it at all times.

The most animated talks we have are about…things

I've internalized my father- his impatience, his perfectionism, his rage. I no longer need my father to torture me. From this day on, I can do it all by myself.

Points become games become sets become tournaments, and it's all so tightly connected that any point can become the turning point. It reminds me of the way seconds become minutes become hours, and any hour can be our finest. Or darkest. It's our choice.

every journey is important, and that no journey is impossible.

There's a lot of good waiting for you on the other side of tired. Get yourself tired, Andre. That's where you're going to know yourself. On the other side of tired.

Ciò che rende speciale qualcosa non è quel che si vince, ma quel che senti di poter perdere.

There is a star up there with your name on it...reach man, reach.

We are like blocks of stone … blows of His chisel which hurt us so much are what make us perfect.

we start the year on the other side of the world, at the Australian Open, and then just chase the sun.

Qué lindo es sonar despierto, he says. How lovely it is to dream while you are awake. Dream while you are awake, Andre. Anybody can dream while they're asleep, but you need to dream all the time, and say your dreams out loud, and believe in them. In other words, when in the final of a slam, I must dream. I must play to win.

He doesn't know the value of letting the other guy lose.

When you know that you just took the other guy's best punch, and you're still standing, and the other guy knows it, you will rip the heart right out of him. In tennis, he says, same rule. Attack the other man's strength. If the man is a server, take away his serve. If he's a power player, overpower him. If he has a big forehand, takes pride in his forehand, go after his forehand until he hates his forehand.

I stand and feel an overpowering urge to forgive, because I realize that my father can't help himself, that he never could help himself, any more than he could understand himself.

Life will throw everything but the kitchen sink in your path, and then it will throw the kitchen sink. It's your job to avoid the obstacles. If you let them stop you or distract you, you're not doing your job, and failing to do your job will cause regrets that paralyze you more than a bad back.

Andre, he says, some people are thermometers, some are thermostats. You're a thermostat. You don't register the temperature in a room, you change it. So be confident, be yourself, take charge.

People, I think, don't understand the pain of losing in a final. You practice and travel and grind to get ready. You win for one week, four matches in a row. (Or, at a slam, two weeks, six matches.) Then you lose that final match and your name isn't on the trophy, your name isn't in the record books. You lost only once, but you're a loser.