Andre Agassi Quotes

The finish line at the end of a career is no different from the finish line at the end of a
match. The objective is to get within reach of that finish line, because then it gives off a magnetic force. When you're close, you can feel that force pulling you, and you can use that force to get across. But just before you come within range, or just after, you feel another force, equally strong, pushing you away. It's inexplicable, mystical, these twin forces, these contradictory energies, but they both exist. I know, because I've spent much of my life seeking the one, fighting the other, and sometimes I've been stuck, suspended, bounced like a tennis ball between the two.

All the good stuff is on the other side of tired.

The best predictor of future events is probably past events.

Few of us are granted the grace to know ourselves, and until we do, maybe the best we can do is be consistent.

That's the greatest applause that any person will ever receive in their life when it comes from their peers

What you feel doesn't matter in the end; it's what you do that makes you brave.

No athletes talk to themselves like tennis players. Pitchers, golfers, goalkeepers, they mutter to themselves, but tennis players talk to themselves-and answer. Tennis players look like lunatics in a public square.

A great coach can lead you to a place where you don't need him any more.

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.

You have to understand who you are and figure out a way to communicate it. It might be in a different industry, but it's about what pumps the blood through your veins, what makes you excited, what pushes your buttons. And then discovering the best way to communicate that, no matter how big or small; it's what you stand for, what you believe in, and what reflects who you are.

To be inspired - that's the secret.

This sport has given me so much that my hope would be to give back as much as I can for as long as I can.

For me, that's the definition of being rich: it doesn't cross your mind to mention it to your best friend. And money is such a given you don't care how you come by it.

My feelings are Yevgeny Kafelnikov should take his prize money when he is done here and go and buy some perspective.

He thinks it's his day, and when you think it's your day, it usually is.

This is the only perfection there is, the perfection of helping others.

The most animated talks we have are about ... things

Yes, for a long time but I admired her and respected everything that I could sort of see in her from a distance, the pillars of her life, the loyalties, the relationships. It all got my interest and also the looks.

You don't cheat anybody out of their experience, whatever it is.

He says nothing. Not because he disagrees, or disapproves, but because he's crying. Faintly I hear my father sniffling and wiping away tears, and I know he's proud, just incapable of expressing it. I can't fault the man for not knowing how to say what's in his heart. It's the family curse.

Standing at the bathroom mirror, toweling off, I stare at my face. Red eyes, gray stubble - a face totally different from the one with which I started. But also different from the one I saw last year in this same mirror. Whoever I might be, I'm not the boy who started this odyssey, and I'm not even the man who announced three months ago that the odyssey was coming to an end. I'm like a tennis racket on which I've replaced the grip four times and the strings seven times - is it accurate to call it the same racket?

It's shocking how little there is to do with tennis when you're just thinking about nothing except winning every point.

I go to New York City, the Tournament of Champions, a significant milestone because it's a clash of the top players in the world. Once more I square off against Chang, who's developed a bad habit since we last met. Every time he beats someone, he points to the sky. He thanks God - credits God - for the win, which offends me. That God should take sides in a tennis match, that God should side against me, that God should be in Chang's box, feels ludicrous and insulting. I beat Chang and savor every blasphemous stroke.

The worse I do in school, the more I rebel. I drink, I smoke pot, I act like an ass. I'm dimly aware of the inverse ratio between my grades and my rebellion, but I don't dwell on it. I prefer Nick's theory. He says I don't do well in school because I have a hard-on for the world. It might be the only thing he's ever said about me that's halfway accurate. (He typically describes me as a cocky showboater who seeks the limelight. Even my father knows me better than that.) My general demeanor does feel like a hard-on - violent, involuntary, unstoppable - and so I accept it as I accept the many changes in my body.

Every now and then I will play; I try to focus on charitable work. I might do it because it's an offer I can't refuse, so I rally and try to stay in shape and keep myself active.

I always felt tennis and winning was a byproduct of doing everything right.

The scoreboard said I lost today, but what the scoreboard doesn't say is what it is I have found. Over the last 21 years, I have found loyalty. You have pulled for me on the court and also in life. I found inspiration. You have willed me to succeed, sometimes even in my lowest moments, and I've found generosity. You have given me your shoulders to stand on to reach for my dreams, dreams I could never have reached without you.

I think one of the greatest joys I have now in my career and in my profession is to be playing at an age where I can appreciate it more than I used to ... It's a whole different lens you look through the older you get.

I had moments of my actions and words not reflecting who it is I am - if that defines a punk, then yes, absolutely.

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

And yet. Our best intentions are often thwarted by external forces - forces that we ourselves set in motion long ago.

Sex doesn't interfere with your tennis; it's staying out all night trying to find it that affects your tennis.

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.

Tennis is at an amazing time when you've got two of the best players ever to play the game. You can argue the two very best playing in the same generation. It's a rivalry I think that we've never seen in our sport.

It never seizes to amaze me how much I enjoy playing here and how much you fans have meant to me over the years.

Success doesn't always come in the form of a trophy. Keep striving for success.

When you deal with somebody in the heat of battle, you see the best or the worst of them. So when you get through all that there is a great deal of respect.

How lovely it is to dream while you are awake.

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

Freed from the thoughts of winning, I instantly play better. I stop thinking, start feeling. My shots become a half-second quicker, my decisions become the product of instinct rather than logic.

The day after I turn pro, Philly gets a call from Nike. They want to meet with me about an endorsement deal. Philly and I meet the Nike man in Newport beach, at a restaurant called the Rusty Pelican. His name is Ian Hamilton.
I call him Mr. Hamilton, but he says I should call him Ian. He smiles in a way that makes me trust him instantly. Philly, however, remains wary.
Boys, Ian says, I think Andre has a very bright future.
Thank you.
I'd like Nike to be a part of that future, to be a partner in that future.
Thank you.
I'd like to offer you a two-year contract.
Thank you.
During which time Nike will provide all your gear, and pay you $20,ooo.
For both years?
For eacvh year.
Ah.
Philly jumps in. What would Andre have to do in exchange for this money?
Ian looks confused. Well, he says, Andre would have to do what Andre has been doing, son. Keep being Andre. And wear Nike stuff.

Hitting the ball has never been my issue, so I can literally not pick up a racquet for two months and hit the ball, really, really nicely. I mean movement's always an issue.

First of all, let me say, 1:15 in the morning, for 20,000 people to still be here, I wasn't the winner, tennis was. That's awesome. I don't know if I've ever felt so good here before.

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.

If you're ranked number one in the world it's because you've earned it, and I think the only way to really get there is to have that ability and to have it nurtured in a very competitive environment at an early age.

Being Number Two Sucks.

I'm going to go down swinging ... I'm sure as heck not going to go home and say I had a bad tournament.

Older people make this mistake all the time with younger people, treating them as a finished product when in fact they are in process.

Big dreams, are so damn tiring.

I got a hundred bucks says my baby beats Pete's baby. I just think genetics are in my favour.

I question myself every day. That's what I still find motivating about this. I don't have the answers, I don't pretend that I do just because I won the match. Just keep fighting and maybe something good happens.

You know my dad pushed me to believe that I was going to be the best. I just never thought of life without tennis, even looking forward.

Hate brings me to my knees, love gets me on my feet.

I play tennis for a living even though I hate tennis, hate it with a dark and secret passion and always have.

I envy Pete Sampras's dullness. I wish I could emulate his spectacular lack of inspiration.

One cannot always tell what it is that keeps us shut in, confines us, seems to bury us, but still one feels certain barriers, certain gates, certain walls. Is all this imagination, fantasy? I do not think so. And then one asks: My God! Is it for long, is it for ever, is it for eternity? Do you know what frees one from this captivity? It is very deep serious affection. Being friends, being brothers, love, that is what opens the prison by supreme power, by some magic force. - Vincent van Gogh, letter to his brother, July 1880

I feel old when I see mousse in my opponent's hair.

Now that I've won a slam, I know something 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 long as the bad. Not even close.

Andre, I won't ever try to change you, because I've never tried to change anybody. If I could change somebody, I'd change myself. But I know I can give you structure and a blueprint to achieve what you want. There's a difference between a plow horse and a racehorse. You don;t treat them the same. You hear all this talk about treating people equally, and I'm not sure equal means the same. As far as I'm concerned, you're a racehorse, and I'll always treat you accordingly. I'll be firm, but fair. I'll lead, never push. I'm not one of those people who expresses or articulates feelings very well, but from now on, just know this: It's on, man. It is on. You know what I'm saying? We're in a fight, and you can count on me until the last man is standing. Somewhere up there is a star with your name on it. I might not be able to help you find it, but I've got pretty strong shoulders, and you can stand on my shoulders while you're looking for that star. You hear? For as long as you want. Stand on my shoulders and reach, man. Reach.

Tennis was always sort of a - a learning. It was a vehicle for me to discover a lot about myself. And the things that I sort of discovered at times I not only didn't want to see it for myself but I certainly didn't want millions of people to see it.

My father says that if I hit 2,500 balls each day, I'll hit 17,500 balls each week, and at the end of one year I'll have hit nearly one million balls. He believes in math. Numbers, he says, don't lie. A child who hits one million balls each year will be unbeatable.

Some moments it feels longer, other moments it feels like it's flown by; you can't believe you've done it all that time ... Overall, you have a strong sense for the full spectrum that you've sort of traveled.

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.

There is nuance now, subtext, body language, and pheromones.

Walking to the net, I'm certain that I've lost to the better man, the Everest of the next generation. I pity the young players who will have to contend with him. I feel for the man who is fated to play Agassi to his Sampras. Though I don't mention Pete by name, I have him uppermost in my mind when I tell reporters: It's real simple. Most people have weaknesses. Federer has none.

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.

Great things begin at the end of the comfort zone. It is all about exploring the bleeding edge in your own time or with someone who will not judge you for it being beyond your comfort zone

If you don't practice you don't deserve to win.

My father actually moved out from Chicago just so he could play tennis 365 days a year, so it was - it was a place we played every day. We played before school. We played after school. We woke up. We played tennis. We brushed our teeth in that order.

Losing to Pete has caused me enormous pain, but in the long run it's also made me more resilient. If I'd beaten Pete more often, or if he'd come along in a different generation, I'd have a better record, and I might go down as a better player, but I'd be less.

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.

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.

I've been cheered by thousands, booed by thousands, but nothing feels as bad as the booing inside your own head during those ten minutes before you fall asleep.

It means a lot to you, to be out there. The highs are pretty high, and the lows are pretty low. You know, it's easy to feel like you let the team down. I mean, at the end of the day we still got to figure out a way to get through the tie.

I'm going to wake up tomorrow and start with not caring how I feel.

Even if it's not your ideal life, you can always choose it. No matter what your life is, choosing it changes everything.

There's no such thing as an open draw. At least for me - I mean, obviously for Roger Federer, I think every draw feels open for him - but for me there's no such thing as an open draw

When I was 7 years old I saw Jimmy Connors make someone carry his bag, as though he were Julius Caesar. I vowed then and there that I would always carry my own.

A ball feels different off every player's racket-there are minute but concrete subtleties of force and spin. Now, hitting with her (Steffi Graf), I feel her subtleties. It's like touching her, though we're forty feet apart. Every forehand is foreplay.

People who are interested with me have for sure gotten older over the years, for example, grandparents are coming up to me telling me they grew up watching me.

I suppose you could never say never, but my experience would tell me that the most successful players in the world are gonna come from an environment that is more competitive at an early age.

My only good result in 1997 was marrying Brooke Shields.