Best Mcenroe Quotes & Sayings

John McEnroe ... was arguably the best serve-and-volley man of all time, but then McEnroe was an exception to pretty much every predictive norm there was. At his peak (say 1980 to 1984), he was the greatest tennis player who ever lived-the most talented, the most beautiful, the most tormented: a genius. For me, watching McEnroe don a blue polyester blazer and do stiff lame truistic color commentary for TV is like watching Faulkner do a Gap ad. — David Foster Wallace

I sometimes rented a car and drove from event to event in Europe; a road trip was a great escape from the day-to-day anxieties of playing, and it kept me from getting too lost in the tournament fun house with its courtesy cars, caterers, locker room attendants, and such - all amenities that create a firewall between players and what you might call the 'real' world - you know, where you may have to read a map, ask a question in a foreign tongue, find a restaurant and read the menu posted in the window to make sure you're not about to walk into a joint that serves only exotic reptile meat. — Patrick McEnroe

To be involved in a senior tournament back in the States is very satisfying. — John McEnroe

Be happy. If you're successful but unhappy, that's emptiness. — John McEnroe

I think it's the mark of a great player to be confident in tough situations. — John McEnroe

The important thing is to learn a lesson every time you lose. Life is a learning process and you have to try to learn what's best for you. Let me tell you, life is not fun when you're banging your head against a brick wall all the time. — John McEnroe

You can tell when someone has been on steroids A guy bulks up, has a new body and never gets tired ... You see these guys or girls who come onto the tour talking about their new training programs and their diets where they eat this or that new thingbut they'll never tell you about the drugs they took. — John McEnroe

Being a celebrity is like being raped, and there's absolutely nothing a player can do about it. — Patrick McEnroe

John McEnroe looks as if he is serving round the edge of an imaginary building. — Clive James

I think the players, I put in the book for example that we should go back to wood rackets, probably they laughed at me, I'm a dinosaur, but I think that you see these great players, have even more variety and you see more strategy, there'd be more subtlety. — John McEnroe

It would be a nice place if you took all the people out of the city. — John McEnroe

I want to be remembered as a great player, but I guess it will be as a player who got angry on a tennis court. — John McEnroe

John McEnroe has hair like badly turned broccoli. — Clive James

Instant replay is going to be awesome. For too long, tennis has been stuck in its traditions, which is part of its strength as a game. But you have to be able to change some things and get fans interested. — Patrick McEnroe

A refrigerator runs by converting the dust behind it into a peculiar mutant, reptilian substance. — Colin McEnroe

When you ask people about guys they didn't like because they were aggressive, there's me, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors; not too many names would come up. — Pete Rose

No one cares about the Davis Cup. How many people know I won five Davis Cups and seven majors, but that I rarely played the Australian Open? — John McEnroe

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. — John McEnroe

I believe there's only one autobiography you can do. — John McEnroe

Equipment's the biggest change. And the guys have been getting bigger, stronger, more athletic - so the game has become more of a track meet instead of a tennis match, in a sense. — John McEnroe

I had a similar year back in 1984 when I felt like I couldn't lose. — John McEnroe

John McEnroe is the most honest and real person I have ever interviewed. — Brian Kilmeade

It means a lot to be back in New York. Particularly since one of the last senior event scheduled in the States was supposed to be here in New York. We were supposed to play in Central Park right after 9-11 and when 9-11 happened obviously things changed. — John McEnroe

Let's hope his nerves will run through his veins. — John McEnroe

What is the single most important quality in a tennis champion? I would have to say desire, staying in there and winning matches when you are not playing that well. — John McEnroe

That's one of the best sets I've seen him play, although I should preface that by saying I haven't seen him play before. — John McEnroe

The greatest compliment I ever got was when people called me an artist, and I understand that solo aspect of being an artist, when you're in there by yourself, trying to do something great, and people who don't even know you can come up and just dump on you. — John McEnroe

Well I think that's probably one of a few, where I grew up in the City of New York, it's got a lot of energy, my parents are Irish-American so there was a bit of yelling going on in my house but it seemed normal. — John McEnroe

Being on tour sends me crazy, I drink too much and out comes the John Mcenroe in me. — Chrissie Hynde

It's been predictable, in the sense of 'expect the unexpected'. — John McEnroe

There's something deeply satisfying when it succeeds, but I'm not going to do another book just to put my name on something and make some money if it's not something I deeply care about. — John McEnroe

I wrote to Mr. McEnroe, Senior. I said: "Here is the sentence once written by the immortal Bobby Jones. I thought you might like to have it done in needlepoint and mounted in a suitable frame to hang over Little John's bed. It says, The rewards of golf - and of life, too, I expect - are worth very little if you don't play the game by the etiquette as well as by the rules." I never heard from Mr. McEnroe, Senior. I can only conclude that the letter went astray. — Alistair Cooke

An idea has no worth at all without believable characters to implement it; a plot without characters is like a tennis court without players. Daffy Duck is to a Buck Rogers story what John McEnroe was to tennis. Personality. That is the key, the drum, the fife. Forget the plot. — Chuck Jones

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. — John McEnroe

The Benson and Hedges Cup was won by McEnroe ... he was as charming as always, which means that he was as charming as a dead mouse in a loaf of bread. — Clive James

If Roger stopped right now and never won another match, to me he'd already be one of the greatest players to ever play the game. To me, he's the greatest all around talent that I've ever seen. — John McEnroe