Agassi Quotes & Sayings

Just before I got down here I had a chance to see Agassi play another game and he smoked another player, which was nice to see. Someone who a lot of people thought couldn't come back and now he's winning. — Elvis Stojko

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. — Andre Agassi

I get to shift multiple markets. I get to shift economies. It's extremely liberating. I breathe differently. — Shai Agassi

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

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. — Andre Agassi

I have a lot of respect for the auto manufacturers. They make a product people live inside - and can die inside - so they are held to very high standards. — Shai Agassi

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. — Andre Agassi

There is nuance now, subtext, body language, and pheromones. — Andre Agassi

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. — Andre Agassi

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. — Andre Agassi

But, I would say when I was four years old and I was at the Alan King Tennis Tournament and I was hitting with all the pros that would come to town. They would get me on the court or take notice and that stayed with me. — Andre Agassi

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. — Andre Agassi

You don't have to be the best in the world every time you go out there. You just have to be better than one guy. — Andre Agassi

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. — Andre Agassi

If Pete's (Sampras) child is a girl, my son will like her; if he's a boy, my son will defeat him. — Andre Agassi

If I've learned nothing else, it's that time and practice equal achievement. — Andre Agassi

I slide to my knees and say, "Please let this be over." Then, I'm not ready for it to be over. — Andre Agassi

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. — Andre Agassi

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

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. — Andre Agassi

You have to have the mentality of executing your game when you don't feel like there's a lot of hope. I think the best feeling is when somebody pushes you to the limit and you dig down a little bit extra. By the same token, you also need a little luck. Sometimes they come together. — Andre Agassi

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

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. — Andre Agassi

I'm going to have to pick my shots and play great tennis. — Andre Agassi

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

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

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. — Andre Agassi

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. — Andre Agassi

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

My accomplishments do not live up to my tennis game. Most people have to work really hard and win some big matches, and then they get money and popularity. For me it has been the reverse of everybody else. The exact opposite. — Andre Agassi

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

Gil's philosophy in all things is to seek the pain, woo the pain, recognize that pain is life. If you're heartbroken, Gil says, don't hide from it. Wallow in it. We hurt, he says, so let's hurt. — Andre Agassi

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

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

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. — Andre Agassi

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

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

I address the trophy and the warped reflection: All the pain and suffering you've caused me. — Andre Agassi

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 — Andre Agassi

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. — Andre Agassi

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. — Andre Agassi

Pride is bad, stress is good. I don't want to feel confident. I want to feel rage. Endless, all consuming rage. — Andre Agassi

When you chase perfection, when you make perfection the ultimate goal, do you know what you're doing? You're chasing something that doesn't exist. You're making everyone around you miserable.
You're making yourself miserable. Perfection? There's about five times a year you wake up perfect, when you can't lose to anybody, but it's not those five times a year that make a tennis player. Or a human being, for that matter. It's the other times. It's all about your head, man.
-Brad Gilbert — Andre Agassi

Remember this. Hold on to this. This is the only perfection there is, the perfection of helping others. This is the only thing we can do that has any lasting meaning. This is why we're here. To make each other feel safe. — Andre Agassi

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

Sometimes it's just harder to remind yourself about what you're doing and why you're doing it ... Other times, you have a great desire for it, but physically you're not responding the way you want. That presents other challenges. Then sometimes it all comes together. — Andre Agassi

Well, I actually tell my son that I don't have any hair because he asked me the same question that I gave it to him when he was born, so he actually still believes that. He's five years old. — Andre Agassi

People don't ask Andre Agassi, 'You know you're the No. 1 tennis player in the world ... have you thought about polo?' — Rob Schneider

I find it surreal, then perfectly normal. I'm struck by how fast the surreal becomes the norm. I marvel at how unexciting it is to be famous, how mundane famous people are. They're confused, uncertain, insecure, and often hate what they do. It's something we always hear - like that old adage that money can't buy happiness-but we never believe it until we see it ourselves. Seeing it in 1992 brings me a new measure of confidence. — Andre Agassi

One answer to why public interest in men's tennis has been on the wane in recent years is an essential and unpretty thugishness about the power-baseline style that's become dominant on the tour. Watch Agassi closely sometime ... he's amazingly absent of finesse, with movements that look more like a heavy-metal musician's than an athlete's ... what a top PBer really resembles is film of the old Soviet Union putting down a rebellion. It's awesome, but brutally so, with a grinding, faceless quality about its power that renders that power curiously dull and empty. — David Foster Wallace

Only boxers can understand the loneliness of tennis players - and yet boxers have their corner men and managers. Even a boxer's opponent provides a kind of companionship, someone he can grapple with and grunt at. In tennis you stand face-to-face with the enemy, trade blows with him, but never touch him or talk to him, or anyone else. The rules forbid a tennis player from even talking to his coach while on the court. People sometimes mention the track-and-field runner as a comparably lonely figure, but I have to laugh. At least the runner can feel and smell his opponents. They're inches away. In tennis you're on an island. Of all the games men and women play, tennis is the closest to solitary confinement ... — Andre Agassi

philosophers have noted that people who habitually deceive
finally fall for their own deceptions. This is the well-known
phenomenon that confidence artists appeal to the willingness of
their victims to deceive both themselves and others in one and
the same act: The victims are encouraged to deceive
themselves into thinking that they deceive only others while
ignoring their own greed and the immorality of the way they
choose to satisfy it. To this Russell added that the same holds
true for all self -deception: — Joseph Agassi

I can live with losing, I can't live without taking my chance. — Andre Agassi

I'm also not sure that I look up to others as knowing what the hell is going on, except maybe Andre Agassi, who, when I interviewed him, while covering the U.S. Open, seemed to know what was going on. My basic assumption is that we're all confused all the time. Some people do act more confident, though. Maybe they aren't confused. I am. I'm confused. — Jonathan Ames

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. — Andre Agassi

There are some guys you have problems beating because of their style - I always had difficulties with guys like Michael Chang and Andre Agassi because their returns were so good and they played so well in defence. — Guy Forget

This is the only perfection there is, the perfection of helping others. — Andre Agassi

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. — Andre Agassi

The best predictor of future events is probably past events. — Andre Agassi

I wish I could emulate his spectacular lack of inspiration, and his peculiar lack of need for inspiration. — Andre Agassi

I don't always choose to stay fit by playing tennis, because that comes with its own wear-and-tear. — Andre Agassi

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

Tennis is a very objective sport in the sense that the scoreboard doesn't lie. — Andre Agassi

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. — Andre Agassi

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. — Andre Agassi

Andre Agassi was my rival in the '90s, and I think as we got older we sort of transcended the game. He was probably the best player I ever played over my career. There's a list of players that were tough, but Andre, certainly, he was the most unique. — Pete Sampras

Israel is my past. My two boys are my future. — Shai Agassi

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 — Andre Agassi

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

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

Given all that lies beyond my
control, I obsess about the few things I can control — Andre Agassi

When I sold my first company at 30, I could have done whatever I wanted to do. — Shai Agassi

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

The most animated talks we have are about ... things — Andre Agassi

You can't have thousands of cars without good computers on the electric grid. — Shai Agassi

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

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

I was on the board of Andre Agassi's foundation, and seeing the way it operated blew my mind. In 2002, I told my wife, I want to start a foundation to give back, I want it to be for kids in hard circumstances, and I want it to be culinary-driven, because that's who I am. — Emeril Lagasse

I tell the players: You'll hear a lot of applause in your life, fellas, but none will mean more to you than that applause-from your peers. I hope each of you hears that at the end. — Andre Agassi

Our vision is to create an exceptional lifestyle offering worthy of Tamarack's incredible surroundings. All of our partners involved in this development are committed to delivering the highest level of quality and luxury possible. We are excited to have Fairmont join us in this endeavor. — Andre Agassi

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? — Andre Agassi

I didn't cry when they buried my father - I wouldn't let myself. I didn't cry when they buried my sister. On Thursday night, with my family asleep upstairs, my eyes filled as Agassi and Marcos Baghdatis played out the fifth set of their moving second-round match. — Greg Garber

A win doesn't feel as good as a loss feels bad, and the good feeling doesn't last as long as the bad. Not even close. — Andre Agassi

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. — Andre Agassi

I've been motivated by overcoming challenge and overcoming the hurdles and obstacles that face me. There still is plenty out there to get motivated by. — Andre Agassi

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

We must all care for one another - this is our task in life. But also we must care for ourselves, which means we must be careful in our decisions, careful in our relationships, careful in our statements. We must manage our lives carefully, in order to avoid becoming victims. — Andre Agassi

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. — Andre Agassi

Maybe I don't know yet how to be happy and play well at the same time. — Andre Agassi

We talk about things. We talk about nothing. — Andre Agassi

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. — Andre Agassi

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. — Andre Agassi

Nothing can substitute for just plain hard work. I had to put in the time to get back. And it was a grind. It meant training and sweating every day. But I was completely committed to working out to prove to myself that I still could do it. — Andre Agassi

Well, you know, I've bonded with a lot of people over the years, you know. We played the same tournaments year after year and we go back to the same place and many times the seats have been full and that has meant the world to me for sure. — Andre Agassi

What makes something special is not just what you have to gain, but what you feel there is to lose. — Andre Agassi

A strong body listens. It obeys. A weak body commands. If your body is weak it tells you what to do. If your body is strong it'll actually listen to you when you tell it to do something. If you build it right you can overcome some of the obstacles of age and recovery. — Andre Agassi

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. — Andre Agassi

First of all, in any sport where you can measure distance, height speed and all of that, you see how athletes have changed their sport and made it better. I believe, with every generation, the sport has improved. Certainly, in the men's game, that has been the case. I think that I played Pete [Sampras] at his best, I played Roger [Federer] at his best.. I believe wholeheartedly that Roger and [Rafael] Nadal have pushed the game much further than myself or Pete ever did. Their options on the tennis court are considerably more than ours. — Andre Agassi

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. — Andre Agassi

Big dreams, are so damn tiring. — Andre Agassi