In Iowa, we take care of people. That's all I think I need to say.
Tennis is the loneliest sport.
It's no accident, I think, that tennis uses the language of life. Advantage, service, fault, break, love, the basic elements of tennis are those of everyday existence, because every match is a life in miniature. Even the structure of tennis, the way the pieces fit inside one another like Russian nesting dolls, mimics the structure of our days. 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.
What makes something special is not just what you have to gain, but what you feel there is to lose.
If you don't practice you don't deserve to win.
It's shocking how little there is to do with tennis when you're just thinking about nothing except winning every point.
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 meaning. This is why we're here. To make each other feel safe.
The ghosts of things that never happened are worse than the ghosts of things that did.
If I could go to Kabul and not die, I would go back to Afghanistan as soon as I could. And, that was the most interesting place that I've been to.
And live like Nature's bastards, not her sons.
Man is one; and he hath one great heart. It is thus we feel, with a gigantic throb athwart the sea, each other's rights and wrongs; thus are we men.