The sooner I get into the Hall of Fame the better.

You know, many of you kids can't relate to what it takes to get to the top rung, the top of the heap, to have success. We're looking for things that come in a minute. It just doesn't happen.

I never had to cheat, I get them with what I got.

The people like the American Legion Post that gave us a chance to play. A place to play and a chance to play.

I am truly sorry that a fowl of Canada is no longer with us.

These days baseball is different. You come to spring training, you get your legs ready, you arms loose, your agents ready, your lawyer lined up.

All though I didn't meet him. His legend and his saga and his story is just that. Jackie Robinson, we all have to tip our hat to him. Because he made the game available to guys like me.

There are a lot of people who influenced me, nurtured me, helped me along the way. But I can just recall looking back, the first time I got my baseball glove. Put it on the wrong hand, all those kind of things.

Now it's on to May, and you know about me and May.

You have to go understand that life and baseball is littered with all kinds of obstacles and problems along the way. You have to learn how to overcome them to be successful in life.

To give you an idea what it feels like to be going in with some of the best baseball players of all-time, I mean it is fantastic. I have to say this about them, there are so many of these guys up here that were my role models, people I looked up to, people I wanted to be like.

Everyone has a breaking point, turning point, stress point, the game is permeated with it. The fans don't see it because we make it look so efficient. But internally, for a guy to be successful, you have to be like a clock spring, wound but not loose at the same time.

And then 45 years later, as I finished my career in the great city of Cleveland, that was another great way to end my career, going to the World Series.

And I found out, the other part of it is that I found out and in my desire to life successfully, that baseball fit very well into my life. It's been a great teacher, trainer, mentor and you'll see what I mean in the next few minutes that I have to speak.

But I'll tell you this, it started with my mother. I have to give her. God bless her and rest her soul. I had a good foundation at home, so when I was able to go off and do these things in baseball there was always support.

You know, heroes are ordinary people that have achieved extraordinary things in life.

The sooner I get into the Hall of Fame the better.

People I look to: again, Hank Aaron, man you challenged the status quo and the records of the game. Monumental feats in an era where people didn't like that.

Made it through high school, went to the University of Minnesota.

You have to be like a clock spring, wound but not loose at the same time.

To the people out there, baseball is a simple sport. But it is complex. It is never easy.

The Yankees won the pennant, we went on to the World Series, 41 years after that in the city of Toronto. The great city of Toronto, and all the provinces in Canada, everybody reached out and they were excited because we won the first World Series ever, across the border.

There is no way, believe me, despite my name being Winfield, and loving the game dearly. It wasn't in the cards. I didn't know what it was going to take to get here.

I chose baseball because to me baseball is the best game of all.

You have to be like a clock spring wound but not loose at the same time.

Maybe it's my 15 minutes of fame, maybe it's longer.

The present condition of fame is merely fashion.

The fame aspect of winning the Masters... besides being married and becoming a father, that's a strong third there.

Fame and tranquility can never be bedfellows.

The best people renounce all for one goal, the eternal fame of mortals; but most people stuff themselves like cattle.

I wanted to be an actress. In college I was a serious feminist and very political. I was determined to get one thing out of my career and that was respect. I didn't want money. I didn't care about fame.

I was the executive editor on a little magazine called Greek Accent, whose only claim to fame is that its art director went on to be the art director of Discover for many years.

But once I acclimated and really used fame for what it was offering me as a tool to serve my life purpose of inspiring and contributing, then it started to get fun again.

Every day I work at not taking this fame thing seriously. Fortunately I have a great group of friends who help me do this.

I've experienced as much fame as I ever want to.

There is not in the world so toilsome a trade as the pursuit of fame; life concludes before you have so much as sketched your work.

It was never the fame or fortune that drove me to act. It was something I love and enjoy doing it. A lot of people identify who they are by what they do and that's not me. It's what I do but not who I am. Who I am is a parent. I'm a family man.

I'm the age now that Rock was when he picked me up, so I can understand how he felt - how his fame limited his freedom. You get kinder as you go along.

Don't confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other.

Sometimes I'm uncomfortable with the level of fame I've got! It all depends on the day and what's going on. I don't desire any more fame. I don't need it.

Luckily, thanks to the way my parents taught me, I think I can handle the fame in the right manner.

Ah, who can tell how hard it is to climb the steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar?

Fame, like the river, is narrowest where it is bred, and broadest afar off.

Socrates' fame spread all over Greece, and the most respected and educated men from all around came to him, in order to enjoy his friendly company and instruction.

Acquaintance lessens fame.

I've written enough books with real celebrities, such as Walter Payton and Hank Aaron and Billy Graham, to know that fame looks good only to people who don't have it.

Honor means that a man is not exceptional; fame, that he is. Fame is something which must be won; honor, only something which must not be lost.

If we should be blessed by some great reward, such as fame or fortune, it's the fruit of a seed planted by us in the past.

Fame makes me feel wanted and loved, anybody wants that.