quotes

Leander Paes: Traditionalist

“I may wear an earring at times, fool around with the way my hair is styled and I love to play around with fashion. But, deep down I am a traditionalist.
—Leander Paes.

Vijender Singh: Sports and entertainment

“Be it the Indian Premier League, football or wrestling, people watch sports for entertainment. It is the same with pro boxing; people come to see a good fight. They don’t want to see soft counter-punches. Nobody comes to watch a nice person. They want to see brutal fights and blood.”
—Vijender Singh.

Leander Paes: Pressure

“As a human being, I have never felt pressure. Or rather, you feel pressure but you know how to handle it.”
—Leander Paes.

Francis Warren: Amateur and pro boxing

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Amateur and pro boxing should be separate. It is unfair that young amateur boxers would be destroyed by experienced fighters at the Olympics.”—Francis Warren.

Sanjay Manjrekar: Coaches

“The coaches that actually make a difference to Indian cricket are those that coached players like Tendulkar, Dravid and others, when they were kids. The grassroots level coaches.”—Sanjay Manjrekar.

Zinedine Zidane: Good or bad?

“I don’t know if I’m a good person, but I know I’m not a bad one.”—Zinedine Zidane.

Reinhold Messner: This line lived by me

“A climb is only there for me. When I climb up a wall, there is a line, before, during and afterwards. It’s like a teacher writing on a blackboard with chalk, only this line is lived by me. But afterwards, you see nothing on the wall. I see my line in my inner eye. It is a huge design, maybe the biggest paintings we do on the highest mountains. But we leave nothing. The next generation can come and they don’t see a line on Everest. The biggest possibility is to create nothing. The something we create is nothing, so when the next generation comes, the world is still empty and they can fill it up. I believe we reinvent the world in each generation. We live life step by step, and at this moment, the steps in front of me are real, but soon, the wind washes away my footprints.”
—Reinhold Messner, first man to summit Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen and also the first on all 14 8000-metre peaks.

Odessa Grady Clay: Special Muhammad

“I always felt like God made Muhammad special, but I don’t know why God chose me to carry this child.”—Odessa Grady Clay, Muhammad Ali’s mother.

Chris Gayle: I am honest

“Don’t hate me just because I am not what you want me to be. Don’t hate me because I am not what you are. I am me and I am honest.”
—Chris Gayle.

Irrfan Khan: Heroes

“It pains me when a film actor or a cricketer is a youth icon. I don’t have anything against them. They are great entertainers; they are useful to the society. They contribute to people’s lives. But they are not heroes. We haven’t redefined heroes. Heroes are different people. Heroes are people who sacrifice their own concerns and do something bigger, who change people’s lives. We film stars and cricketers shouldn’t be aspirational in such a big way for the healthy growth of the society. It’s a sign of consumerism at its extreme. That’s why I find it so cool and so hip to see that photograph of the women scientists of ISRO celebrating a launch. That’s heroism. That’s cool, that’s hip! Lekin main agar kahin se udhaar le kar, kuch bana ke, thodi der ke liye aapka time pass kara de raha hoon, just because I am famous, you aspire to become me – that’s not cool, that’s pathetic.”
—Irrfan Khan.

Irrfan Khan at the launch of NDTVLumiere’s The Orphanage (Photo credit: Wikipedia)