“They spoke about Capablanca with awe. I have never seen people speak about any chess player like that, before or since.”

Nobody has single-handedly done more for the US image than me…

When I won the World Championship in ’72, the United States had an image of, you know, a football country, baseball country, but nobody thought of it as an intellectual country.

I studied that first Karpov-Kasparov match for a year and a half before I cracked it, what they were doing, and discovered that it was all prearranged move-by-move. There’s no doubt of it in my mind.

Genius. It’s a word. What does it really mean? If I win I’m a genius. If I don’t, I’m not.

A piece of garbage like Kasparov might be called a chess genius, but he’s like an idiot savant. Outside of chess he knows nothing.

I want to see the U.S. wiped out. Death to the U.S.

Psychologically, you have to have confidence in yourself and this confidence should be based on fact.

You are never too old to play chess!

The Russians have held my title for ten years and they’re going to be in for it when I win the Championship. They’re going to have to wait and play under my conditions.

I don’t keep any close friends. I don’t keep any secrets. I don’t need friends. I just tell everybody everything, that’s all.

I’d like to travel around, be an international playboy. They have all that money; they could really do it right. Look at (Errol) Flynn.

I don’t remember one thing I learned in school.

I don’t believe in wasting time. My goal is to win the World Chess Championship; to beat the Russians. I take this very seriously.

I usually never stay at the board after a game. Especially against Spassky. I made a dumb suggestion and he refuted it instantly! I know I’m going to have to play him some day and it was really stupid to look like such a jerk in front of him.

Too many times, people don’t try their best. They don’t have the keen spirit; the winning spirit. And once you make it you’ve got to guard your reputation – every day go in like an unknown to prove yourself. That’s why I don’t clown around.

The main idea behind any opening is to get a strong pawn center and give your pieces a lot of scope so that you cramp your opponent’s position and can attack weaknesses in his game.

People’s personalities, like buildings, have various facades, some pleasant to view, some not.

You will find poetry nowhere unless you bring some of it with you.

Self-interest makes some people blind, and others sharp-sighted.

I believe everything creative is somewhat collaborative. If you’re a painter and someone stretches your canvas, it was collaborative on some level.

It is the supreme honour that a scientist can receive. Some of the giants in physics and chemistry have received this prize.

The only thing that should surprise us is that there are still some things that can surprise us.

Some people take defeat and losses a certain way. You see how some fighters take losses.

I’ve had some fantastically good people help me make the movies.