That's the hard part about sport: as men we haven't started to be in our prime, but as athletes we are old people. I needed support. I lost trust and did stupid things.

When I was a child, I had posters of James Dean in my room. I was a big admirer of his work and was fascinated by him living on the edge. Looking back, my life was kind of the same.

I'm not a God, I make mistakes.

Where do you go when you're the best in the world? What's next?

I don't really care what the man on the street thinks. I never did anything to please him in the first place, and I'm not going to start now.

Tennis is a psychological sport, you have to keep a clear head. That is why I stopped playing.

I go to London, my favourite city in the world, and I feel at home.

How do you build a relationship when you've hardly shared a word but suddenly share a child? How do you love a daughter you don't see for nearly two years? When does she become your daughter? How does she become your daughter?

So this is it. Match point for eternity.

The suit-and-tie job is very nice but it's not really who I am in my heart.

I believed in raising my children as I had been raised.

It's silly to say it about a tennis player, but I'm an unbelievable hero in Germany. And Germany needs heroes more than any place.

For a year, I had all sorts of weirdos coming on to me.

I lost in the second round of the French Open and had 10 days off. I went to the Hard Rock Cafe. It was exciting to be away from my parents, to stay in a hotel. Hotels at 17 meant freedom.

When you are thrown onto the stage at 17 in such an enormous way, it becomes living on the edge because every step you take, every word you speak, every action you do becomes headline news. And it became, for me, life or death.

It was a confusing time in my life, a really bad day at the office.

Girls had never been important. I'd had a girlfriend or two and had liked them a lot but it wasn't love, because my first love was tennis.

An autobiography is not about pictures; it's about the stories; it's about honesty and as much truth as you can tell without coming too close to other people's privacy.

The eyes of some of the fans at Davis Cup matches scare me. There's no light in them. Fixed emotions. Blind worship. Horror. It makes me think of what happened to us long ago.

I go to my favourite tournament, I talk about my favourite sport and it's just a great month of parading.

I met with my lawyers. They gave me all the wrong advice. For a long time I refused to accept the child was mine. I should have met her, arranged a DNA test and accepted my responsibility.

That's the hard part about sport: as men we haven't started to be in our prime, but as athletes we are old people. I needed support. I lost trust and did stupid things.

Does anyone ask their parents how they are conceived?

I love the winning, I can take the losing, but most of all I Love to play.

I want to be a hero, a small and good kind of hero, even though I know heroes have very short lives.

I believe that everything in life happens for a reason.

I was in the tennis bubble. I wasn't thinking about the big picture. I didn't notice what they said on television, I wasn't reading any papers. I had a coach and a manager, and they kept me in the bubble.

If I go into a club now, all the blonde girls leave my corner and all the black girls come into my corner. It's as if I'm racist towards white girls!

I can't change history, I don't want to change history. I can only change the future. I'm working on that.

A few years after my first son was born, he wanted to know how we chose his name, so I began reading him the story of Noah's Ark.

I don't know how many millions of photographs have been taken of me.

Tennis is a psychological sport you have to keep a clear head. That is why I stopped playing.

The fifth set is not about tennis its about nerves.

I love the winning, I can take the losing, but most of all I love to play.

Athletes as role models and heroes is a hoax, a sick hoax. The men and women who are fighting in Iraq, they are the true heroes.

No one will burn out doing aerobic running. It is too much anaerobic running, which the American scholastic athletic system tends to put young athletes through, that burns them out.

The bottom line is that these athletes tend to be safer investments because they really value their marketing opportunities. They don't make as much money as during their active careers.

For athletes, the Olympics are the ultimate test of their worth.

I always liked serve-and-volley players and big athletes.

Several professional athletes have wrongly taught many young Americans by example that the only way to succeed in sports is to take steroids.

There's that initial reticence for some athletes to take you seriously.

It strikes me that these days, clubs don't even want players who can truly play any more; they just want athletes, quick guys who don't have a football brain, can just run and run; some of them, Jesus. I can never imagine acting like that.

One of the perks of being an actor is to get to meet athletes that you respect. Especially who played before my time. Brooks Robinson is one of those athletes; they just don't make them any nicer.

The contracts are structured different than athletes in America, but for me, it was good to move on and go back to playing in the premiere league, which is the best league. It was disappointing, as far as the team goes, but for me, there wasn't much I could do.

I've witnessed thousands of superior athletes try to becomes hitters and fail at it.

The only reason we make good role models is because you guys look up to athletes and we can influence you in positive ways. But the real role models should be your parents and teachers!

We typically don't choose our athletes until about a month prior to the Games because anything can happen.

The night before I compete, I like to have steak. Meat is especially important for female athletes because it provides them with the nutrients they need to perform at their best.

Sports is a metaphor for overcoming obstacles and achieving against great odds. Athletes, in times of difficulty, can be important role models.