I didn't know I could even be a professional tennis player, honestly. All this is actually very, very unexpected.

My coaches, trainer and agency have all helped make me the player and the business that I am today.

Everyone wants to start the year off well.

You can't not love it here in Paris. It's amazing.

It is very hard to stay up there in the Top 20.

I've always stayed hungry.

When you're out on the court, you're fighting against yourself and it can be tough.

I grew up in a nice neighborhood in Greensboro, N.C., which is not too big, but definitely not a small town.

I always ask for the exit row when flying. Airlines are pretty accommodating and most of the time I'll get it.

I think college tennis makes you tough.

I was playing 60, 70 matches a year in college. In the pros, unless you're winning, you're not playing that many.

My confidence sort of comes and goes very quickly.

I stopped eating airplane food; it's not that good.

I was always so big, it took me a long time to grow into my body.

I almost went with basketball over tennis.

I can't beat guys consistently playing like I'm 5-foot-10.

People seem to think when you lose a match it's because you are not working hard.

Playing four years of college, when you're playing for someone other than yourself, I think it makes it a lot more fun.

That would be a huge honor, if I ever were to become the No. 1 American. It's something that I've always wanted to, you know, achieve that. For me, if were to happen, it'd be great. I'd try to hold onto that spot as long as possible, but I know there'd be a lot of people nipping at my heels to try to get to that No. 1 spot.

When I travel to a grand slam, I need to look for a place to stay for me, my family and my team.

For me, I relish playing tournaments in America.

That's the most fulfilling thing I've experienced ever, being a father.

As anyone who is a father or mother out there can tell you, it's pretty amazing.

Practicing hard doesn't guarantee you anything.

Being able to travel with family and friends so they can cheer me on as I play is something it's hard to put a price on; my point is simply that for all of this, there is indeed a price.

People often come up and tell me how much money I make in a year, which is funny because I don't think it's something I've ever said to someone.

The way I see it, the prize money is a reflection of my on-court performance, but the sponsorships are something more personal, connected more to people and fans, and to my values.

The mental part of the game, being able to free up on the tennis court, is much easier said than done.

At 19, I didn't have a hair on my face. When I was 20, I looked 14.

Tennis is not really a traditional Olympic sport.

The coaches that I have have done an incredible job with me, obviously the stuff we work on on the court.

I haven't really worked with, like, a mental coach or anything.

Yeah, certainly you want to try to save your energy at a Grand Slam.

Theatre has had a very important role in changing South Africa. There was a time when all other channels of expression were closed that we were able to break the conspiracy of silence, to educate people inside South Africa and the outside world. We became the illegal newspaper.

The exchange rate of the Rand against the dollar, pound or euro makes South Africa an attractive location. The positive side of this is it gives our artists and technicians an opportunity to work.

Before 1994, many South Africans used theater as a voice of protest against the government. But with the end of apartheid, like the artists who watched the fall of the Iron Curtain in Europe, theater had to find new voices and search for new issues.

In 1973, 'Sizwe Banzi is Dead' and 'The Island,' which I co-wrote with Athol Fugard and Winston Ntshona, transferred from The Royal Court Theatre to the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End.

Art is universal. When works of art become classics, it is because they transcend geographical boundaries, racial barriers and time.

In 1990 there were about 300 scripts being written demanding the release of Nelson Mandela. And suddenly we watched Mandela walking out of prison. So those scripts had to be destroyed.

Inkaba' is about a feud between two South African families. They have been fighting for years, from one generation to the next. It's like those typical feuds you have in rural KwaZulu-Natal where, after a while, you do not even know why you are fighting.

You found during apartheid a strange occurrence from the white folks themselves. There were those who did make a choice to speak out and stand and be counted in the army of human beings who believed in justice. And then there are those who left.

'Sizwe' is the beginning of protest theatre; 'Nothing But The Truth' is post-apartheid South Africa.

In the global push to stop gender-based violence, men in the entertainment industry need to join forces with women to end violence by men against women and children.

I'd read Shakespeare in school, translated into isiXhosa, and loved the stories, but I hadn't realised before I started reading the English text how powerful the language was - the great surging speeches Othello has.

Shakespeare's words paint pictures in glorious colour in my language. They were written by a man whose use of words fits exactly into Xhosa.

When I tried to do 'Waiting for Godot, it was such a controversy. I was tired of political theatre. All I wanted to do was 'Godot.' You know what happened? We were told we had messed up and politicised a classic that has nothing to do with S.A.

I have been on the Urban Brew board for many years and assisted with the artistic evaluation of the various shows that were pitched to the production company.

We have to depoliticise our youth. We have to teach our youth that the word 'government' means them, it's something to feel pride in, not something to attack.

It is ridiculous to think we can erase racism in South Africa, but through theater there can be a genuine attempt to move on with our lives and build a better country.

We are sort of not at the level of entertainment that the Western world is. Everything we see on the play in the screen, we read, we take serious. We take that it speaks to me. And so wonderful to see how the Johannesburg, South African audiences will say: What does it say to me? What does it make me feel? Why am I celebrating it?