[What resonated for Blake during his match with Agassi was] when Jimmy Connors sits down and says, 'This is what they came for. This is what we'll give them.' ... It doesn't get any bigger, or better, than that.

[Blake heartily endorses himself as well.] Everybody says the Cardinals are doormats, ... I've tried to show the guys that perceptions are worth nothing. It might not happen overnight, but I want to get this team fixed.

When (Connors) was 35, 36 when we played, you know, I don't know if I was old enough to really understand what it meant for him to be doing what he's doing,

[It is barely more than a year since Blake broke his neck on a net post during training, lost his father to stomach cancer and was struck with stress-triggered shingles, which paralyzed half his face and jeopardized his career. But those] life lessons, ... find a way to be happy with it.

It just sits there in my locker for when I want to come back and put it on.

They blame him who sits silent, they blame him who speaks much, they also blame him who says little; there is no one on earth who is not blamed.