Quotes About Professionalism

I remember one time I wrote something very, very critical about Wilt Chamberlain. The next time I saw him - and Wilt was not a man, as huge as he was - he was not a man of confrontation. And we were in the Lakers locker room. And he sent Jerry West over, and he said, 'Frank, Wilt would like you to leave.'

I don't wilt easily, and a director can't either. He's the captain of the ship and he's got to be in total control. He also has to have respect for the people he's working for. From being an actor and being on a set my whole life, I'm very comfortable there. And I'm not afraid.

Wimbledon 2014 will be my last slam. To be honest, I am already starting to miss professional tennis, having played at the highest level for two decades. It is what has given me my identity, and I will miss every bit of the action. The thought that I will not be playing anymore is daunting.

There's no medals for trying. This isn't like eighth grade where everybody gets a trophy. We are in a professional sport, and it is competitive to win. That's what we do.

Actresses can get outrageously precious about the way they look. That's not what life's about. If you starve yourself to the point where your brain cells shrivel, you will never do good work. And if you're overly conscious of your arms flapping in the wind, how can you look the other actor in the eye to respond to them?

I understand that when people try to wind me up, it's because I'm playing well. Whenever I had trouble, it was because I reacted to something. Now I'm much more focused on the game and on doing my job.

Eventually, when I retire, I can say I've played at the Britannia Stadium on a Wednesday at 7 P. M. in the cold and wind.

I don't want to be like a flag in the wind one day like this and one day like the other, praying for a few points. Sometimes at this level we have to, sadly, work within this pressure in your day to day work, and that's quite normal.

To establish personal relationships with the people you work with is stupid, because you never know when the winds will change. I try not to get too close to people.

For a 20-year-old kid to be taking on Liverpool Football Club over a contract. To the pit of my stomach that just winds me up, it angers me.

It is fitting that yesteryear's swashbuckling newspaper reporter has turned into today's solemn young sobersides nursing a glass of watered white wine after a day of toiling over computer databases in a smoke-free, noise-free newsroom.

I like an occasional glass of wine, though I don't drink before a shoot or a show - blotchy skin is not a good idea, however good your make-up artist.

For the record, I've never taken a bung in my life. I might have enjoyed a meal or a bottle of wine on an agent or two but that is it. I was earning £1.5m a year, so I didn't need a little bit extra from an agent. It would have been madness.

Francisco Garcia could have been a high draft choice last year, probably in the 20s. He's the best wing player I've ever coached. But he's done it the right way. He knew he had to work on his body to become a good pro. When he goes into the pros, he'll be physically ready.

I came up under the wing of Larry Bowa, and one thing I did not do was ever take a day off from taking pregame groundballs or batting practice. Then the games were just having fun.

I love what happens between colleagues. It's just another facet of family to me. That's certainly what we explored all over 'The West Wing'. I was an intern in my first season between my junior and senior years of college. Then, I worked on the staff for the next six years.

I enjoy Otis Thorpe; he took me under his wing when I was a rookie. I'm also a fan of Ron Harper. He showed me the ropes and showed me what it was to play in the NBA.

The biggest downside of my current job is that I have to wear a suit to work. Wearing uncomfortable clothes on purpose is an example of what former Princeton hockey player and Nobel Prize winner Michael Spence taught economists to call 'signaling.'

In all honesty, once you become a professional, number one, you're no longer a fan. I don't root for the Dodgers, really. I just try to do the game as best I can. And the winning and the losing will take care of itself.

Winning the gold medal should have been the happiest day of my entire life, and it just wasn't. It felt like the saddest day of my life. Everyone was so angry with us, that Scott and I had fallen in love, because it was so unprofessional, and we were a disgrace and had betrayed everybody.

The way I look at myself, the biggest achievement in my eyes - forget winning trophies or scoring in World Cups - is that I'm still at a top club playing at a really high standard having been almost two different players.

When you start playing tennis, you don't imagine there's a whole bureaucracy behind the tournaments and all of that. You just think about winning the cups.

The great thing about my two lives is I love them both. I'm very ambitious and nothing gets in the way of me practising and concentrating on winning golf tournaments. But then I come home and get back to normality.

Tom Coughlin is great with the players and he is what you see with the media. He's a good guy and he's a fun guy, but at the same time he's a serious guy when it comes to winning and it comes to football.