Top 130 Quotes & Sayings by Congolese Authors - Page 2

Mentally, starting the game versus coming off the bench, there are different vibes.

When you are a young player in the NBA, sometimes you don't pay much attention to some of the cities you visit, especially in cold places like Toronto. But when you spend more time in the league you learn more about the cities you play in, and learn how to appreciate them more.

We are running a very strong and ongoing marketing campaign to get families to send their children to school, particularly girls.

I wish I had more body parts that I could work out. If I had my way, I'd be in the gym all day. I love to lift.

LeBron is not a good defender.

Throughout my career I have proven that I am a man of action.

You can see when people's locked in and they are ready mentally, and when they are not.

My focus is to start my game with my defense every night.

I believe in God, and I believe in miracles, and I believe that everything is possible.

An hour and a half before games, I always eat fruit - a banana, an apple, and an orange - because I'm trying to get natural energy. You get natural sugars and natural energy from that.

That's where I get my toughness in mind. From my background when I was young, everything I've been through, everything I was going through in my life. It helped me a lot, it helped me to be strong.

When you play in the NBA, everybody wants to play in the All-Star Game. I really want to.

If ever I leave power, it will be only in conditions of beauty, never under pressure.

I'm trying to do whatever it takes to help my team.

That's one thing you can never go wrong as an athlete, try to connect with the fans.

Always feels good to give back.

The will of the majority will be respected.

My confidence comes on defense.

If you want to steal, steal a little cleverly, in a nice way. Only if you steal so much as to become rich overnight, you will be caught.

One of the things I learned playing on a good team is when the team wins, when you make the playoffs, everybody looks good.

When I think about power, it's not about having money. It's about changing people's lives, changing people's moods. To me, it's a blessing to have that power.

That was something I needed to learn, to understand that you can work hard and enjoy it, too.

I love to lift after games.

The miseries suffered by our people come more from the shameless exploitation of our countries.

I'm mature enough to understand I can find time to do other things without disturbing my focus for basketball.

It's hard when you have to play a way you're not really used to and you feel like you can do more than just that.

I love defense.

I love this game. When I step on the court I'm going to compete. That's one of the reasons I work hard every day.

My father was always pushing me to become a basketball player. In Africa, when you're a kid, every kid loves to play soccer, and I loved playing soccer. But my dad didn't want me playing soccer. He would joke, 'C'mon, man, you're too tall!' Then he promised me, 'If you start playing basketball, I'm going to give you my jersey.'

Without pressure, I'm not going to wake up every day to go work, or do extra shooting, or lifting.

You cannot control everything - you try to control what you can control.

I didn't know there was an NBA draft. But in my mind, I was always telling myself, one day, 'I'm going to be in professional basketball.' And I believed it. One day, I will. I believe this every day. I think about this every day. I was going to do whatever I had to do to be there. And it comes true.

I will never be known as the former President of Zaire.

At first, I wanted to be a good player in the NBA. When I get to a team where you have one of the two best scorers in the league, I just said to myself that I needed to do something. I need to do something to help my team, something to make my name. That's where I started to focus on defense.

I speak French, and I grew up with French, so my English is Franglais.

It's good to score, but there are some other things that are important in basketball too.

I'm not really good at asking people questions in interviews. I just try to have fun, to talk.

I'm a blessed man.

I joined the Wildlife Conservation Society, working there, in 1995, but I started working with them as a student in 1991. I was appointed as a teaching assistant at my university because I accomplished with honor.

When I say about 'dream is free,' I don't only mean about basketball or to be in the NBA like Serge Ibaka. No. I mean in general, in anything you do. You can do anything you want, anything you dream about. You can do it. You just have to know the dream is free. And dream is free for everybody.

We're trying to bring improved seeds to rural villages to increase yields. We're also trying to improve the roads to make it easier for people to get their produce to the market.

When it's time to dress, I have to think. I have to envision myself in a certain outfit. The night before, when I go to bed, I close my eyes and start thinking about the outfit I'm going to wear tomorrow: all the colors, the fabrics, how it's going to look. It's about putting the whole thing together.

I've learned a lot from every place I've ever lived. I feel blessed for that.

I like to always be able to contest shots. If you play against a player like Al Jefferson - he likes to pump-fake, so you need to be alert and quick. If he pump-fakes you and you go up, when you come back you need to go right back up to contest his shot.

I learned a lot in Spain.

I had a poster of Kevin Garnett hanging in my room. He was one of my inspirations when I was young. I was at my friend's house - he had a lot of money, so sometimes I'd go to his place to watch some NBA action. I remember the first time I saw Kevin Garnett, I just felt something in my body: 'This feels like me.'

The development agenda is not a straightforward one; it's a process with serious hurdles, but it's a path we've chosen to go down.

I just like to look nice.

I come from zero and I've had to push myself up to where I am today. I'm not going to give up and I'm going to keep pushing.

I can play at four or I can play at five and I think I feel more comfortable because I'm flexible to do whatever I want to do.

That's the culture I come from - we like to dress nice. It is my thing.

When I don't have basketball practice, I'll be in a gym for 2.5 hours - 30 minutes abs, 2 hours lifting.

Justice can help reduce sexual violence: bringing to justice those soldiers responsible for sexual violence discourages other soldiers from committing such crimes.

I've been learning when to block shots against who I'm playing. I'm not just going to leave a shooter to go block shots.

Mobutu does not think he is God.

Not everybody can do everything at a high level.

When I was 16 I took the first opportunity I had to play basketball in a different country. I flew to Europe for the first time and found myself in the small town of Macon, in France. That was the first time I lived far away from my people, from my culture. I was young and had to adapt quickly.

I always believe in myself.

I will never forget where I come from, and my journey to becoming an NBA Champion has been hard to believe.

I played football when I was a kid, it is such a fun sport to play, I fancied myself as a midfielder until I grew too tall and discovered basketball.