“That’s why we have journalists, for stats.”

I think when you have surgery on any part of your body, it’s never going to be the same.

Whether you win a match or lose a match, in terms of your emotions, it’s important to be pretty levelheaded.

As an individual, I take every match seriously, no matter who I’m going to play.

It’s always tough when you lose – you’ve worked so hard for that moment and it hasn’t gone the way you wanted. But you have to realise there’s always a bright side, you have to pick yourself up and get ready for the next game.

I’d probably start charging for medical timeouts. I think we’d all see who really uses them and who doesn’t.

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.

Accuracy to a newspaper is what virtue is to a lady

I think journalism can come from anywhere, and comedy can certainly come from anywhere.

Fast Food Nation is witness to the rigour and seriousness of the best American journalism, readable, reliable and extremely carefully done.

I think if journalists start doing that then they won’t be practicing journalism. If satirists start doing that then they won’t be practicing satire.

I think the worst thing we can do is to concede to fanaticism its devotion, say. Well, you have to understand, these people are really fanatics, so we should back down from them.

In journalism, if there’s a hole in your story you figure out a way around it because you’ve got a 4 p.m. deadline.

Each genre has its own process. I’m very intuitive about poetry. I usually write first and second drafts out by hand. The other end of the spectrum is journalism, which is much more cerebral, more thought-out and planned.

And I know that when I worked daily journalism it really affected my patience with literature, which I think requires reflection, and a different kind of engagement.