Artists are the gatekeepers of truth.
Now that I've won a slam, I know something very few people on earth are permitted to know. A win doesn't feel as good as a loss feels bad, and the good feeling doesn't last long as the bad. Not even close.
It's no accident, I think, that tennis uses the language of life. Advantage, service, fault, break, love, the basic elements of tennis are those of everyday existence, because every match is a life in miniature. Even the structure of tennis, the way the pieces fit inside one another like Russian nesting dolls, mimics the structure of our days. Points become games become sets become tournaments, and it's all so tightly connected that any point can become the turning point. It reminds me of the way seconds become minutes become hours, and any hour can be our finest. Or darkest. It's our choice.
What makes something special is not just what you have to gain, but what you feel there is to lose.
If you don't practice you don't deserve to win.
It's shocking how little there is to do with tennis when you're just thinking about nothing except winning every point.
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.
You're young. Maybe there'll be time for a do-over if you don't get it right the first time. But there are no guarantees. There will come a time as it has for me when there's no time for a do-over.
Men sometimes speak as if humility and meekness would rob us of what is noble and bold and manlike. O that all would believe that this is the nobility of the kingdom of heaven, that this is the royal spirit that the King of heaven displayed, that this is Godlike, to humble oneself, to become the servant of all!
I was taught that pain is bad.
The infinite Atonement is for both the sinner and for the saint in each of us.