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" One of the things I respected about Connors was that one second he would be spewing a four-letter word, the next second he would do something that had people falling off the aisles. Yet he never seemed to lose his concentration. "

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" Jack Nicholson didn't get anything until he was in his thirties. You have to persevere and put yourself in positions, and sooner or later, you will break through. "

John McEnroe

Through

Will

Yourself

" I don't take myself as seriously as I did when I was playing, and it works, and I think people see the self-deprecation in my commentary. "

" Of course for your main rivals, you're going to get extra motivated for it, particularly if you haven't played him for a long time. "

" We should reach out to people to try to go after the fans the way other sports do. Because we can't just depend on the fact that it is a great game. "

" I can't speak for other people, but I still hate losing. When I did lose, I found it easier to yell than to cry. Guys aren't supposed to cry, are they? "

" I haven't seen a professional player come out of New York in over 20 years since my brother Patrick came out. Blake spent a few years in Harlem, but he moved to Connecticut when he was a kid. "

" If you look at the top 100 players, you would see that the great majority of them have had at least a couple of surgeries. That tells me that we have to protect the players. "

" You're asking too much of the women. They shouldn't be playing as many events as men. If tennis is best served by women playing events with men, so be it. "

" This taught me a lesson, but I'm not quite sure what it is. "

John McEnroe

Sure

Quite

" I did a terrible job of composing myself. I was a spoiled brat from Long Island who benefitted from the energy of New York. "

" With commentating, I've had a chance to show the humorous side of my personality that I didn't use on the court. It's fun, and I don't take myself too seriously. I have good broadcast teams with me, but I'm not a huge stats guy. I think they post the numbers too quickly, and I'd rather let the match play out a bit first. "

" I am finicky about making sure my sneakers are pretty tight. It is almost like a superstition for me. "

John McEnroe

Almost

I Am

" I can barely remember what I was like 36 years ago when I was 21 years old. "

John McEnroe

Years

Remember

" I was always fighting the establishment, trying to run through brick walls. "

" The best thing I ever did was when I was offered a million dollars to go play in South Africa and didn't take it. I was 21 years old, and part of it was like, 'Well, if they're offering me this obscene amount of money just to play one match, there must be something really wrong.' "

" Maybe I should have played two more Australians and two less Davis Cups? I could have had more majors and still have three Davis Cups when most people don't have one. "

" I would not have an event before the majors. I would build them up. It very rarely happens that a player plays the week before, wins the event, and then goes on to win the slam. "

" But these guys learn so fast now, they sort of soak up the information, they're fearless. Those are the guys who learn from their mistakes and come back strong the next time. "

" The good part of having six kids is, there's always one who wants to hug you and say, 'Daddy, I love you.' "

" Sitting there clapping and smiling... it's difficult. You're like, 'Don't worry about it, you just double faulted, you just played a really dumb point. Keep positive.' Then more clapping. That would annoy me as a player. "

" I went on safari in South Africa just after apartheid had ended. "

" I used to get two racquets a year. As you can imagine, they didn't last me too long. "

John McEnroe

You

Long

" I thought if I looked back and evaluated my life, it would help me in the future. "

" I'm a tell-it-like-it-is kind of person; I don't like being misled or someone not telling the truth. That upsets me. "

John McEnroe

Someone

" When I was eight and a half, my parents moved to a part of Queens where there was a club nearby. We joined, and if you believe in someone up above, I think I was meant to play tennis. "

" I'm 56 years old. I like to get out on the court. I continue to try to play the best I can. Obviously, I'm nowhere near where I was when half this age. But I can still hit a pretty decent ball. "

" Women have it better in tennis than any other sport, but you shouldn't push them to play more than they're capable of playing. "

" The perception is I didn't get along with umpires, obviously, and I didn't, on the court. But off the court, we had a good vibe. "

" I was always taught that you needed to be intense and never lose your focus. "

" Things slow down, the ball seems a lot bigger and you feel like you have more time. Everything computes - you have options, but you always take the right one. "