As the day goes on you get more and more tired. Even if people say they're afternoon people or evening people, it's always best to start out first thing in the morning with your most important task as opposed to your email, phone calls, or checking the internet. If you start out with that then basically you'll just do that all day long.
When I'm relaxed, I play my best tennis.
I found ways to maintain my performance through working with professionals and doing things that other people weren't doing. Later in my career, I had a great physical therapist who kept me out on the track. We were doing innovative things like ice baths back in the early '80s when everyone else thought it was crazy.
When you're playing the best player in the world, you've got to play well.
I am always nervous before the start of a race. It helps me to say to myself to try my very best. That is my commitment. No matter how bad it gets, I will try my hardest.
You want our team to have the best chance to win.
People with success are less able to cope because you're used to being on Mount Everest and when it's gone, what do you do?
I think I'm realising that careers for tennis players are very short. On the women's side now, players are starting to peak later on, but the average age is about 31, 32 when you finish playing, so I want to make the most of it while I'm young, fit, and healthy. I don't want to waste any time.
Always being champion, always being at the top every three days, playing great football - it's not that easy.
When you feel like you are performing at your best, it's a beautiful feeling.
I think I've got some more big plays left in me.
Over the years, I've made many sacrifices to win two Olympic gold medals and put together winning streaks that will never be broken.
There are three sportsmen: Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, and Lionel Messi. They perform with excellence, like most of us could never dream of.
Cycling is an endurance sport. You lose your fast-twitch ability as you age, but your endurance peaks when you hit 30. I don't think I really started feeling my age until around 40.
You always want to play against the best.
Hopefully I can play until I'm 40.
I do not forecast playing until 38 or 39.
Sometimes fear can bring performances out from you.
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.
The best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be
When a story is flying along, and I'm so into it that my 'real' world goes away, it can feel magical. I cease to be, my desk and computer ceases to be, and I am my character in his world. Psychologists call this a 'flow state,' and it's better than publication, money, awards, fame.
When I play my hardest, I feel like I'm one of the best on the floor.
Clean living is the cardinal principle in the lives of the world's greatest athletes, as the phenomenal performances of these outstanding characters will obviously show.
Now I'm fast and under control. I can just play, seeing the game slower now.
I couldn't just be good on the mic. I needed to be good on the mic; I needed to be good in the ring; I need to be good in my presentation; my ring attire need to look good, my appearance. Everything about me needed to be the best. I couldn't be weak in any area because you're only as good as your weakest aspect.
