“I try not to hit a swing volley and run back. So my swing volley is kind of that transition to the net. It’s been one of my favorite shots ever since I was young.”

If everything was going smoothly you would never build character.

I love to collect modern art.

I can’t say I don’t like acting, but I can’t imagine a career when I have to spend 70 percent of my time in a trailer eating Snickers bars.

Within a few years the name ‘Maria Sharapova’ will be a brand as universally recognized as Calvin Klein, BMW and Rolex.

If you’re able to help some people and make them smile and make them realize that life is good, then that’s worth so much more than buying a pair of shoes.

My family and I built my whole career from scratch.

I don’t follow other players or the tournaments they play. I have my own schedule and do my own thing. I never really think, ‘Oh, I want to be or play like so-and-so.’ I just like being myself.

No matter what you study, the thing that you know best is what you grew up with.

I always have a Sharpie, because usually when someone asks me for an autograph, they don’t have a pen. I carry one in my purse, as well as in my tennis bag.

I look forward to the challenges.

Tennis has never been the most important thing in my life. My family, my health, my happiness they are more important to me. On court, I want to win. Off court, I want to be a better person. Tennis is a path to my future.

I want to be different. If everyone is wearing black, I want to be wearing red.

When you start from nothing, when you come from nothing, it makes you hungry. I am proud of where I came from and I know what I want. I want to win.

I heard endless conversations between my parents when I was going to sleep about how we would survive, how we would continue. All of them were about trying to make me better.

I’m done growing. I only grow when I put my high heels on now.

I help design my own tennis clothes.

I do believe people ought to be left alone. I don’t care who you are or what you do at home or who your friends are or where you hang out, what kind of music you listen to, what you do in your home is your own business. That’s always been who I am. I am a leave me alone kind of guy.

There are two kinds of Europeans: The smart ones, and those who stayed behind.

Love binds people too, in matrimony’s sacred bonds where chaste lovers are met, and friends cement their trust and friendship. How happy is mankind, if the love that orders the stars above rules, too, in your hearts.

Love has three kinds of origin, namely: suffering, friendship and love. A human love has a corporal and intellectual origin.

Being kind doesn’t mean you are a pushover. Don’t let them convince you otherwise.

The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman.

I’m kind of still learning my voice and learning my style.

Maybe age is kinder to us than we think. With my bad eyes, I can’t see how bad I look, and with my rotten memory, I have a good excuse for getting out of a lot of stuff.