Open — Andre Agassi
From Andre Agassi, one of the most beloved athletes in history and one of the most gifted men ever to step onto a tennis court, a beautiful, haunting autobiography.
Agassi’s incredibly rigorous training begins when he is just a child. By the age of thirteen, he is banished to a Florida tennis camp that feels like a prison camp. Lonely, scared, a ninth-grade dropout, he rebels in ways that will soon make him a 1980s icon. He dyes his hair, pierces his ears, dresses like a punk rocker. By the time he turns pro at sixteen, his new look promises to change tennis forever, as does his lightning-fast return.
And yet, despite his raw talent, he struggles early on. We feel his confusion as he loses to the world’s best, his greater confusion as he starts to win. After stumbling in three Grand Slam finals, Agassi shocks the world, and himself, by capturing the 1992 Wimbledon. Overnight he becomes a fan favorite and a media target.
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Qué lindo es soñar despierto, he says. How lovely it is to dream while you are awake. Dream while you’re awake, Andre.
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told her things I knew to be true, and things I hoped to be true, most of which I couldn’t bring myself to fully believe and act on.
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Pain is God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world. He tells them: We are like blocks of stone … [T]he blows of His chisel, which hurt us so much, are what make us perfect.
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You always try to be perfect, he says, and you always fall short, and it fucks with your head.
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You try to hit a winner on every ball, when just being steady, consistent, meat and potatoes, would be enough to win ninety percent of the time.
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Get the odds in your favor. Right now, by trying for a perfect shot with every ball, you’re stacking the odds against yourself. You’re assuming too much risk. You don’t need to assume so much risk.
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You’re crazy. You’re learning. You’re nuts. You’ll see.
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Wax on, wax off.
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mistaken impression that winning is normal, losing is abnormal.
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Pride is bad, stress is good.
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This is the only perfection there is, the perfection of helping others. This is the only thing we can do that has any lasting value or meaning. This is why we’re here. To make each other feel safe.
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No matter where you are in life, there is always more journey ahead.
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I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.
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we must all care for one another—this is our task in life. But also we must care for ourselves, which means we must be careful in our decisions, careful in our relationships, careful in our statements. We must manage our lives carefully, in order to avoid becoming victims.
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my mind to be a river—raging, channeled, and therefore pure.
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Standing still, she’s a goddess; in motion, she’s poetry.
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lodestars
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Even if it’s not your ideal life, you can always choose it. No matter what your life is, choosing it changes everything.
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eating like a Spartan warrior