A Quote by David Foster Wallace

John McEnroe...was arguably the best serve-and-volley man of all time, but then McEnroe was an exception to pretty much every predictive norm there was. At his peak (say 1980 to 1984), he was the greatest tennis player who ever lived-the most talented, the most beautiful, the most tormented: a genius. For me, watching McEnroe don a blue polyester blazer and do stiff lame truistic color commentary for TV is like watching Faulkner do a Gap ad.

David Foster Wallace

Quote Topics

Ad All Time Arguably Beautiful Best Blazer Blue Color Commentary Ever Every Exception Faulkner Gap Genius Greatest His John Lame Like Lived Man Me Most Most Beautiful Much Norm Peak Player Polyester Pretty Say Serve Stiff Talented Tennis Tennis Player Then Time Tormented TV Volley Watching

Quote Author

David Foster Wallace
American - Writer
February 21, 1962 - December 12, 2008

As a kid I loved John McEnroe. They called me Mac because, while everyone else liked Borg, I was crazy about McEnroe. I tried wearing headbands and sweatbands, and whooping at people. It didn't quite work.

Sachin Tendulkar

John McEnroe is the most honest and real person I have ever interviewed.

Brian Kilmeade

I wrote to Mr. McEnroe, Senior. I said: "Here is the sentence once written by the immortal Bobby Jones. I thought you might like to have it done in needlepoint and mounted in a suitable frame to hang over Little John's bed. It says, The rewards of golf - and of life, too, I expect - are worth very little if you don't play the game by the etiquette as well as by the rules." I never heard from Mr. McEnroe, Senior. I can only conclude that the letter went astray.

Alistair Cooke

I'm John McEnroe-like. I'm coming forward every opportunity I get. My wingspan covers some ground at the net. My serve is OK. I can move it around enough. My groundstrokes are good enough to hang in a rally with a good player. But generally, my goal is to put away a point quickly.

Matt Kuchar

Tennis has to be very careful.Not everyone is a computer, it is very good we have John McEnroe. I hope we have a couple more.

Boris Becker

I'm an American. You can't go on where you were born. If you do then John McEnroe would be a German.

Martina Navratilova

Being on tour sends me crazy, I drink too much and out comes the John Mcenroe in me.

Chrissie Hynde

John McEnroe has hair like badly turned broccoli.

Clive James

An idea has no worth at all without believable characters to implement it; a plot without characters is like a tennis court without players. Daffy Duck is to a Buck Rogers story what John McEnroe was to tennis. Personality. That is the key, the drum, the fife. Forget the plot.

Chuck Jones

Ivan Lendl was the best player I ever played. He was the first guy to bring the game to more of a power level and you could know that if he played really well you could get blown off court and that wouldn't happen against John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors or even Bjorn Borg or Guillermo Vilas.

Mats Wilander

John McEnroe looks as if he is serving round the edge of an imaginary building.

Clive James

When you ask people about guys they didn't like because they were aggressive, there's me, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors; not too many names would come up.

Pete Rose

John McEnroe's so good. Against him, all you can do is shake hands and take a shower.

Tomas Smid

Professionalism in tennis ... only resulted in making billionaires out of rude children, producing an onslaught of moody defectors, and a lot of guys with hair that looks as if bats slept in it... Meanwhile, my head swims with the thought that I have watched tennis progress from Don Budge and Alice Marble to Farrah Fawcett becoming John McEnroe's mother-in-law.