You Cannot Be Serious Quotes

“4. In between rounds at Wimbledon in 1982, I struggled to learn David Bowie’s “Suffragette City” and “Rebel, Rebel” in my hotel flat. I heard a knock on my door. It was David Bowie. “Come up and have a drink,” he told me. “Just don’t bring your guitar.”
― John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious

“And very few people have great natural ability. Everyone else—and this is true of most players these days—is in the middle: On a given day, a guy is a world-beater, then the next day he’s just not there.”
― John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious

“Tony Palafox drilled it into me: Be ready for the next shot. Know what you’re going to do next. As a result, because of my talent, my mental preparation, and a reasonable state of conditioning, I always figured that for two hours it was going to be a real pain in the behind to play me—and that 90 to 95 percent of the time, my matches weren’t going to last more than two hours. When they went longer, I became much more vulnerable, because I wasn’t in the amazing physical condition of a Borg or a Lendl; even then, my ability, my intensity, and my desire would always take me a long way. I’m a fighter. I’m going to hang in there and win a lot of my matches.”
― John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious

“The Open era had brought personalities into the game, and personality was generating media exposure, which was generating more money, which in turn guaranteed more media exposure - which in turn drove in even more money. Where money and publicity meet, there’s always excitement, but good behavior is rarely a part of the mix. Manners are the operating rules of more stable systems.”
― John McEnroe, Serious

“when you’re young, you feel invulnerable. I don’t feel invulnerable anymore.”
― John McEnroe, Serious

“My life feels good—and better all the time—but as good as it gets, sometimes it’s hard to forget those tremendous victories…. That’s when I have to remind myself that I really had no one to share those victories with. That’s when I remember how cold the top of the mountain was.”
― John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious

“I had once told myself that after my playing career was over, the two things I would never do were commentary and Seniors tennis. Never say never.”
― John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious

“Arthur and I had had our differences, even our clashes, but I’d had a huge amount of respect for him as a man, a black man, and a positive force for world tennis. I realized too late that he was the greatest ambassador our sport had ever had, and I was determined to try to do better myself.”
― John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious

“It was the end of my marriage and the end of my tennis career, both at the same time, and almost nobody knew about it except Tatum and me. I felt as though the bottom had dropped out of the world. I couldn’t go on, but I had to go on. In Paris, I was literally crying on the changeovers. I would put my head in a towel and fake being angry.”
― John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious

“Two days later, Michael Stich and I won the darkness-delayed doubles final against Jim Grabb and Richey Reneberg, 5–7, 7–6, 3–6, 7–6, and 19–17. It was the longest Wimbledon final ever in terms of games—eighty-three!—and the energy of the crowd, which had been let in for free on the extra day, made me forget how tired and stiff I actually was. Not too shabby for an old man.”
― John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious

“The final score was 6–4, 6–2, 6–3. I gave young Andre a hug at the net, and said, “Why did you listen so well?”
― John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious

“For fifteen years, I had been a presence—terrible or wonderful, but never boring—at Wimbledon, stirring conversation and controversy even when I didn’t show up. In my own inimitable way, and without even willing it, I had become part of Wimbledon’s tradition.”
― John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious

“It was as if Chang had read right through me: He’s lost a step. He can’t get back fast enough. The helplessness was terrible. However, I still took pride in the fact that opponents—even the young bucks—were always very up when they played me. Maybe I was a notch in their belts; maybe they felt, This guy’s a prick; I’ll show him. I like to think it was because I was a great champion.”
― John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious

“I naïvely believed that this person actually thought along the same lines as I did—and maybe she did, for a while. In her own way, Tatum tried hard, too, but ultimately she just didn’t have the wherewithal to bring it off. She was so young! We were so young. As angry as I get, I do feel for her—when I can get through the anger.”
― John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious

“What I didn’t realize was this: It’s never possible to be prepared when the future takes over from the past.”
― John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious

“My shtick, of course, was getting upset. Did it help me more than hurt me? I don’t think so. Ultimately, my father was right—I probably would have done better if I hadn’t ever gotten into that. But I could never rest easily on my talent—or on anything. If I was ahead a service break, I liked to try to make it two—or three. I was always a better front-runner than a comeback player, because I could keep the doubts at bay when I was ahead, but they tended to seep in when I fell behind.”
― John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious

“Tennis really is single combat, and it’s exhausting to be a gladiator.”
― John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious

“I always had to fight to find my best self, to be aware of other people’s feelings—and the devil’s bargain of it is, the players who are more aware of others struggle more. Boris Becker was like that, too. We would have brilliant moments on the court, and total meltdowns. There was just too much going on inside.”
― John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious

“As I moved to the top of pro tennis, though, cockiness became a survival mechanism. I don’t care who you are, Borg or Sampras or Michael Chang—you can’t exist at the top without it. Self-confidence is a must, and so is selfishness. Tennis is an individual sport, and athletes in individual sports—whether they’re figure skaters, boxers, gymnasts, or sprinters—are self-involved by nature. Star tennis players all like to think they’re much more well-rounded than they are. We’re not well-rounded. Nothing in the game asks you to be, or helps you to be.”
― John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious

“And I want you to understand: I felt terrible. I’ve felt awful virtually every time I’ve had one of my on-court meltdowns, with the exception of a few occasions when I really believed I needed to let someone have it. But those really are the exceptions. I’ve apologized a number of times afterward to umpires and players. And to anyone out there who felt they deserved an apology but didn’t get one: I apologize now.”
― John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious

“For me, the relief of not failing has always been just as strong as, if not stronger than, the joy of winning. They say that when things are going really well, you should just let it happen, but that’s exactly when I always started to get nervous. And that’s often when my outbursts began. I could be dominating a guy, up 6–2, 6–2, 2–0 and 40–love on his serve—but if he somehow got out of that game, the negative thoughts would start to creep in. Then, since I couldn’t joke around to ease the tension, the tension built up until it started to come out of my ears. And then my mouth.”
― John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious

“Once you’ve put in the work, though, the game becomes extremely mental. I had enough inner strength to know I could beat anyone at all, anytime, on any surface. But behind my defenses were some very dark places. There was always a devil inside me whom I had to fight. And the devil was fear of failure.”
― John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious

“I wouldn’t have told this to a soul back then, but as early as my first Wimbledon in ’77, I realized I had the potential to be the very best: the best tennis player in the world. I confirmed it for myself as I rose through the rankings—but then, more and more, the problem became that almost everybody was somebody I shouldn’t lose to. The pressure became incomprehensible.”
― John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious

“I firmly believe that one of the hallmarks of a champion—any champion—is the ability to absorb losses and regain confidence immediately.”
― John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious

“Connors always had the ability to turn his anger on and off, which amazed me. I was a one-way street—mad, madder, and maddest. There must have been thousands of times, in tense situations, when a joke was on the tip of my tongue, and instead of saying something funny, I’d just let loose.”
― John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious

“People tend to forget the genuinely lousy level of officiating that was prevalent in professional tennis when I came along. That’s why, with my parents’ words echoing in my ears—tell the truth; be honest at any cost—I felt I was (don’t laugh) on a kind of quest to get things to improve.”
― John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious

“Why couldn’t the game be more accessible to the average person? Why shouldn’t tennis get the same kind of treatment—and interest—as baseball, basketball, or football?”
― John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious

“To me, “manners” meant sleeping linesmen at Wimbledon, and bowing and curtsying to rich people with hereditary titles who didn’t pay any taxes. Manners meant tennis clubs that demanded you wear white clothes, and cost too much money to join, and excluded blacks and Jews and God knows who else. Manners meant the hush-hush atmosphere at tennis matches, where excitement of any kind was frowned upon.”
― John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious

“Week by week, I was rising to new heights, and when you ascend that quickly, and at such an early age, the oxygen doesn’t always flow to your brain.”
― John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious

“Where money and publicity meet, there’s always excitement, but good behavior is rarely a part of the mix. Manners are the operating rules of more stable systems. I got caught up in the rising excitement of pro tennis—in some ways, I was the personification of that excitement—and yes, my behavior got away from me. That’s a big subject.”
― John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious