John McEnroe Quotes & Sayings

#1. I am not a monster. I'm not all bad. Maybe 10 percent. I think I'm 90 percent good.

#2. If, in a few months, I'm only number 8 or number 10 in the world, I'll have to look at what off-the-court work I can do. I will need to do something if I want to be number 1.

John McEnroe

#3. 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

#4. Believe it or not, I was a pretty shy youngster growing up.

John McEnroe

#5. Things slow down, the ball seems a lot bigger and you feel like you have more time. Everything computes - you have options, but you always take the right one.

John McEnroe

#6. 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

#7. 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

#8. You cannot be serious!

John McEnroe

#9. It would be a nice place if you took all the people out of the city.

John McEnroe

#10. There's too much money and too many nice guys around.

John McEnroe

#11. I have never seen someone point after point that just gives it everything.

John McEnroe

#12. It's been predictable, in the sense of 'expect the unexpected'.

John McEnroe

#13. I'll let the racket do the talking.

John McEnroe

#14. 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

#15. Borg's won Wimbledon four straight times and out there he has just lost an 18-16 tie breaker. You'd think maybe once he'd let up and say forget it. But oh, no way.

John McEnroe

#16. 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

#17. To be involved in a senior tournament back in the States is very satisfying.

John McEnroe

#18. My greatest strength is that I have no weaknesses.

John McEnroe

#19. You cannot be serious. You CANNOT BE SERIOUS!

John McEnroe

#20. 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

#21. 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

#22. This [defeat] has taught me a lesson, but I'm not sure what it is.

John McEnroe

#23. We all choke. Winners know how to handle choking better than losers.

John McEnroe

#24. Let's hope his nerves will run through his veins.

John McEnroe

#25. I know being a linesman is a thankless job, especially with guys like me around.

John McEnroe

#26. 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

#27. 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

#28. 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

#29. We should reach out to people to try to go after the fans the way other sports do. Because we can't just depend on the fact that it is a great game.

John McEnroe

#30. 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

#31. When I was eight and a half, my parents moved to a part of Queens where there was a club nearby. We joined, and if you believe in someone up above, I think I was meant to play tennis.

John McEnroe

#32. I think it's the mark of a great player to be confident in tough situations.

John McEnroe

#33. As they say in sports, the older you get, the better you used to be.

John McEnroe

#34. He [Roger Federer] is the greatest natural talent in tennis I've ever seen. I love to watch the guy play, he's an awesome talent

John McEnroe

#35. 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

#36. The good part of having six kids is, there's always one who wants to hug you and say, 'Daddy, I love you.'

John McEnroe

#37. I'd like to think I could have and should have won more, but that's not the point. And I was at the point where I was playing great tennis in the mid 80s - the type of tennis people hadn't seen before - and I was very proud of that.

John McEnroe

#38. But these guys learn so fast now, they sort of soak up the information, they're fearless. Those are the guys who learn from their mistakes and come back strong the next time.

John McEnroe

#39. I didn't serve and volley until I got to Wimbledon in '77.

John McEnroe

#40. It's one thing if you live in London and you're rooting for Chelsea or you're in New York and you love the Giants or Jets and no matter who's on the team you're into it. It's different in tennis; you're sort of your own guy, so you have to reach out and grab a person in a different way.

John McEnroe

#41. 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