“Fitness is the key. You need to have strokes and stamina and agility; you need to exercise really well. On-court and off-court are equally important.”

It is very important to be confident and strong even if you lose, because you know there are tournaments coming up next, and you have to be prepared for it.

What hurts most is whenever I am leading, and then I lose the match, it is disappointing, and there are so many such matches.

It is hard to lose for everybody.

I love dressing up, and I’m aware that people do say that it can take your attention away from the game. But I disagree with this notion!

I was lucky to get good coaches and infrastructure that I needed. To become a champion, it is not just a few months’ practice: it takes years to make a champion.

It takes years of practice to become a World No. 1 or 2.

Every tournament is important for me.

I was at the Gopichand Academy since I was 10.

My long-term goal is to become the world number one player.

I didn’t think I would have an Olympic medal at 21, but I knew I would give my best and play my game. I just viewed it as my first Olympics and that I would take it one match at a time, but to bring a silver home made me very, very happy.

If it makes me happy, it definitely adds to my well-being.

There were many struggles, but my parents supported me a lot. Whenever I wanted anything, wherever I wanted to go, practice session etc., they were there for me.

Since I’m the youngest in the family, I sulk when my parents deny me something, although I come around when they explain why it was denied.

Injuries are part of life. We can’t decide on that.

Against each player, I will give 100 per cent. I give my best in every game.

I prepare the same for every opponent.

A suspicious person is the rival of him that deceives, both seem to practice a knowledge of cunning device, and equable sense of disengenuous merit.

The fatherland shall one day be like this: We’re not all equal, but we’re all brothers.

Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.

Equal means getting the same thing, at the same time and in the same place.

Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.

What wounded veteran’s don’t need is sympathy. They need to be treated like the men they are: equals, heroes, and people who still have tremendous value for society.

A wise man should marry a virgin of a respectable family even if she is deformed. He should not marry one of a low-class family, through beauty. Marriage in a family of equal status is preferable.

Ignorance sheer ignorance. There is no confidence to equal it. It’s only when you know something about a profession that you are timid or careful.