Quotes from Andre Agassi

After years of hearing my father rant at my flaws, one loss has caused me to take up his rant. I've internalized my father—his impatience, his perfectionism, his rage—until his voice doesn't just feel like my own, it is my own. I no longer need my father to torture me. From this day on, I can do it all by myself.

He tells me that for the past few years my mind has been a swamp- stagnant, fetid, seeping in every direction. Now it's time for my mind to be a river- raging, channeled, and therefore pure. p280

he conocido a Gil, que está haciendo lo que se supone que hacen los padres: convertirme en una persona más fuerte.

Pressure is how you know everything's working

I'm flattered by the imitators, embarrassed, thoroughly confused. I can't imagine all these people trying to be like Andre Agassi, since I don't want to be Andre Agassi.

A pochi di noi è concessa la grazia di conoscere se stessi, e finché non ci riusciamo, la cosa migliore che possiamo fare è essere coerenti.

tennis uses the language of life. Advantage, service, fault, break, love, the basic elements of tennis are those of everyday existence

Frankie's chief virtue in my book is the way he talks about his kids.

When they hand me the trophy I think about vomiting into it

WARMING UP BEFORE THE MATCH, I pray. Not for a win, but for my hairpiece to stay on.

but nothing feels as bad as the booing inside your own head during those ten minutes before you fall asleep.

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

Many of you, I'm sure, don't like your jobs. But imagine if someone told you right now that your story about me would be your last. After this, you'll never be able to write another word for as long as you live. How would you feel?

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.

I can't dwell on tomorrow any more than I can dwell on yesterday.

and failing to do your job will cause regrets that paralyze you more than a bad back.

ver trabajar a un artesano me calma, me ancla en la tierra, me inspira. Me recuerda la extraordinaria importancia que en este mundo tiene el trabajo bien hecho.

You can't ask my father anything directly. So I file it away with all the other things I don't know about my parents - permanently missing pieces in the jigsaw puzzle that is me.

This is the only perfection there is, the perfection of helping others. This is the only thing we can do that had any lasting value or meaning. This is why we're here. To make each other feel safe.

Le spun oamenilor c? nu m? uit la programe sportive. Nu-mi plac. Cum adic?? Adic?, nu-mi place sportul. Ei râd. Adic? nu-mi place niciun sport în afar? de tenis? Nu, tenisul îl ur?sc mai mult decât pe toate celelalte. Da, da, sigur c? e o glum?. Nu ai cum s? ur??ti tenisul. Ba da.

I tell myself: Remember this. Hold on to this. This is the only perfection there is, the perfection of helping others. This is the only thing we can do that has any lasting value or meaning. This is why we're here. To make each other feel safe.

Our best intentions are often thwarted by external forces - forces that we ourselves set in motion long ago. Decisions, especially bad ones, create their own kind of momentum, and momentum can be a bitch to stop, as every athlete knows. Even when we vow to change, even when we sorrow and atone for our mistakes, the momentum of our past keeps carrying us down the wrong road. Momentum rules the world.

Only boxers can understand the loneliness of tennis players - and yet boxers have their corner men and managers. Even a boxer's opponent provides a kind of companionship, someone he can grapple with and grunt at. In tennis you stand face-to-face with the enemy, trade blows with him, but never touch him or talk to him, or anyone else

Weak legs command, Gil says. Strong legs obey.