“I still love things that you don’t even need to pay for. Going to the beach and being around five of your friends and having a good time means so much more than going out and spending hundreds of dollars.”

When I come into a tournament, I’m expecting to win. That’s my philosophy. I can’t go to a tournament thinking, ‘I’m going to get my ass kicked today, so I might as well leave.’

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 get along with guys; most of my friends are guys. It’s easier to trust men sometimes. I only have a few close girlfriends that I trust.

At times I think I actually hate Hollywood. I have many acquaintances there, but few friends.

One night I prayed to God, I asked could he please remove my enemies from my life, and before you knew it I started losing friends.

Friendship with a man is friendship with his virtue, and does not admit of assumptions of superiority.

To my sick little pal. I will try to knock you another homer, maybe two today.

Friends are nations in themselves.

I lost most of my friends. Their parents had told them to stay away from me, because they said I was crazy, I was an extremist.

Dear Friend: I have nearly died three times since morning.