“A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.”

The more you win, the better you’re gonna get. It grows on itself.

I think that takes it all. That’s the greatest thing you could ever achieve in your sport. So, I have been very fortunate to play on great teams, but the gold medal was probably the best.

Don’t let winning make you soft. Don’t let losing make you quit. Don’t let your teammates down in any situation.

Leadership is getting players to believe in you. If you tell a teammate you’re ready to play as tough as you’re able to, you’d better go out there and do it..

I used to love the feeling of running, of running too far. It made my skin tingle.

I was always making decisions and they were easier decisions because I had control of the game.

When it gets down to it, basketball is basketball.

You’ve got to have them down before you can even think about playing.

I’ve been around a while. I kinda know these things.

My coach told me, “Larry, no matter how much you work at it, there’s always someone out there who’s working just a little harder – if you take 150 practice shots, he’s taking 200.” And that drove me.

Strength is not nearly as important as desire. I don’t think you can teach anyone desire. I think it’s a gift. I don’t know why I have it, but I do.

It makes me sick when I see a guy just stare at a loose ball and watch it go out of bounds.

The best player I ever played with was Dennis Johnson.

There are many times when you are better off practicing than playing; but most people just don’t understand that

I’ve got a theory that if you give 100% all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.

The one thing that always bothered me when I played in the NBA was I really got irritated when they put a white guy on me.

The longer the meeting, the less is accomplished.

A word of appreciation often can accomplish what nothing else could accomplish.

Cessation of work is not accompanied by cessation of expenses

I am a person who has many dreams. But as soon as I accomplish one, I move on to the next. That’s my fatal, absurd nature. Human beings are slaves to our dreams, and I am, too. Now I think I just want to share my musical proposal in its entire form.

If I’m among men who don’t agree at all with my nature, I will hardly be able to accommodate myself to them without greatly changing myself.

I’m just saying the producers and people who work on music are getting left out – that’s when it starts getting criminal. It’s like you’re working hard, and you’re not receiving. In any other business, people would be standing before Congress. They have antitrust laws against this kind of behavior.

One of the challenges of commencement speeches is that you have this older, wiser person who is accomplished talking to young, not-yet-so-wise, not-yet-accomplished adults or, in high school or middle school, even younger.

The dimensions of a work of art are seldom realized by the author until the work is accomplished. It is like a flowering dream. Ideas grow, budding silently, and there are a thousand illuminations coming day by day as the work progresses.