It Is Not Just The More Talented

My Humanity, In Common With All Of God's Children, Gives The Greatest Flight To My Full Range Of My Possibilities.

Trust Has To Be Earned, And Should Come Only After The Passage Of Time.

If One's Reputation Is A Possession, Then Of All My Possessions, My Reputation Means Most To Me.

There Were Times When I Asked Myself Whether I Was Being Principled Or Simply A Coward.... I Was Wrapped In The Cocoon Of Tennis Early In Life, Mainly By Blacks Like My Most Powerful Mentor, Dr. Robert Walter Johnson Of Lynchburg, Virginia. They Insisted That I Be Unfailingly Polite On The Court, Unfalteringly Calm And Detached, So That Whites Could Never Accuse Me Of Meanness. I Learned Well. I Look At Photographs Of The Skinny, Frail, Little Black Boy That I Was In The Early 1950s, And I See That I Was My Tennis Racquet And My Tennis Racquet Was Me. It Was My Rod And My Staff.

If You're Paid Before You Walk On The Court, What's The Point In Playing As If Your Life Depended On It?