Clive James Quotes

Nick Kyrgios, physically, is a monster. When he is on the court and he runs, he flies. And he has got a massive arm.

Walter Johnson's fastball looked about the size of a watermelon seed and it hissed at you as it passed.

The US player Andy Roddick reaches speeds of 220 kilometers per hour when he serves. If I train with him every day, I will later be at an advantage against a player whose service crosses the net at 190 kilometers per hour.

I still think I have the speed and the variations also to win the matches, but its very good competition and also a great challenge for me too.

My body shape was made to get into the perfect aerodynamic position.

Strange how short-sighted being invisible can make you.

As soon as I hit the ball, I know if it's in.

To a sprinter, the hundred-yard dash is over in three seconds, not nine or ten. The first 'second' is when you come out of the blocks. The next is when you look up and take your first few strides to attain gain position. By that time the race is actually about half over. The final 'second' - the longest slice of time in the world for an athlete - is that last half of the race, when you really bear down and see what you're made of. It seems to take an eternity, yet is all over before you can think what's happening.

He opened the jar of pickles when no one else could. He was the only one in the house who wasn't afraid to go into the basement by himself. He cut himself shaving, but no one kissed it or got excited about it. It was understood when it rained, he got the car and brought it around to the door. When anyone was sick, he went out to get the prescription filled. He took lots of pictures... but he was never in them.

Few years ago I did 30m in 3.7 seconds. Whether that makes me quicker than [Usain] Bolt, I don't know! We all know Usain is the best.

I love being a pavement artist; seriously, I do. It's like when guys who would normally hate being freakishly tall discover basketball, or when girls with abnormally long fingers sit down at a piano. Blending in, going unseen, being a shadow in the sun is what I'm good at. Seeing the shadows, it turns out, is not my natural gift.

There are many moments during a match when you are tense, wrestling with yourself. Tennis is a lesson in self-control.

Every time I step in between those lines, I'm in the zone. If you get between me and the ball, you might get smashed a couple times. Things happen, plays happen.

I have to use my strengths, which [are] my speed, my quickness and my movements. If I do that, I really believe that I will come out on top.

I like mainly to be invisible, to sort of drift around unseen in the world.

Kilbane did what he normally does: ran his heart out and gave the ball away a lot.

All sports are continuously developing, but what they all have in common is that the speed is increasing. That's also true of tennis; the ball is getting faster and faster.

I definitely run up right, and I've got pretty good speed.

Right now my main aim is not to get injured any more. I am a little bit afraid of running and sliding because the ankle was so painful. But I am not a person who runs a lot, who spends a lot of energy on the court. If I am mentally OK, if nothing is bothering me and I want to play, then it is fine.

There is a timbre of voice that comes from not being heard and knowing / you are not being heard / noticed only by others / not heard for the same reason.

Tennis is more than just a sport. It's an art, like the ballet. Or like a performance in the theater.

Gnomes live ten times faster than humans. They're harder to see than a high-speed mouse. That's one reason why most humans hardly ever see them. The other is that humans are very good at not seeing things they know aren't there. And, since sensible humans know that there are no such things as people four inches high, a gnome who doesn't want to be seen probably won't be seen... Wings.

If not then you must be trying to hear us and in such cases we cannot be heard. We remain in the darkness, unseen. In the center of unpeeled bananas, we exist. Uncolored by perception. Clothed to the naked eye. Five senses cannot sense the fact of our existence. And that's the only fact. In fact, there are no facts.

Chirag: Rowley, do you think I exist? Rowley: Nope! I can't even hear you or see you!

I went on the courts with just a ball and a racket and a hope...and that's all I had.