I May Not Be Walking With You

You Really Are Never Playing An Opponent. You Are Playing Yourself.

Someone Once Told Me That God Figured That I Was A Pretty Good Juggler. I Could Keep A Lot Of Balls In The Air At One Time. So He Said, "let's See If He Can Juggle Another One."

I May Not Be Walking With You All The Way, Or Even Much Of The Way, As I Walk With You Now.

When We Were Together, I Loved You Deeply And You Gave Me So Much Happiness I Can Never Repay You.

There Were Times When I Asked Myself Whether I Was Being Principled Or Simply A Coward.... I Was Wrapped In The Cocoon Of Tennis Early In Life, Mainly By Blacks Like My Most Powerful Mentor, Dr. Robert Walter Johnson Of Lynchburg, Virginia. They Insisted That I Be Unfailingly Polite On The Court, Unfalteringly Calm And Detached, So That Whites Could Never Accuse Me Of Meanness. I Learned Well. I Look At Photographs Of The Skinny, Frail, Little Black Boy That I Was In The Early 1950s, And I See That I Was My Tennis Racquet And My Tennis Racquet Was Me. It Was My Rod And My Staff.