The more matches I play, the more confident I get.
I'm never standing still and that makes my life pretty exciting.
I can't please everyone. That's not in my J.D., you know, not in my job description.
I'm done growing. I only grow when I put my high heels on now.
I love where I'm from. I don't live there because of the circumstances, but all my family is there. It's what's inside, it's not what's outside that determines the culture and the feeling.
I'm always on the go. I love doing things until I hit rock bottom. Then I need my 12 hours of sleep, and I'm on the go again.
In the last year I have gained a lot of experience because I have been playing against top players and realized what things to work on to get better. Top players basically tell you what your weaknesses are on the court.
It's pretty hard being a tennis player and Mother Theresa at the same time and that's just the way it is.
I help design my own tennis clothes.
I want my tennis to speak for everything.
When I'm down or maybe when it's close in the match, I feel like I'm still in it. I don't feel like I'm letting down. Mentally, I'm still really, really tough.
There are days when I go out on the court and I feel like I can't miss a ball.
I have a Russian heart.
I've been very competitive by nature from a young age, whether it was eating a bowl of pasta faster than somebody else, or always wanting to be the first one in line.
There are so many roads you can take that will lead you the wrong way, that nobody will hear your name.
If I loved a guy as much as I love my dog, the guy would be in serious trouble because I'm all over that dog, all of the time.
I still love things that you don't even need to pay for. Going to the beach and being around five of your friends and having a good time means so much more than going out and spending hundreds of dollars.
I know many of you thought that I would be retiring today, but if I was ever going to announce my retirement it would not be in a downtown Los Angeles hotel with this fairly ugly carpet.
I definitely feel Russian inside, even when I'm in America I feel Russian.
People always ask about young people like me being forced into things. I play tennis because I love it. I think Russians might be tougher than other people. When I arrived in America I was young, but I already knew what I wanted. I think that when you start from nothing, when you come from nothing, it makes you hungry. I am proud of where I came from and I know what I want. I want to win.
I think it's so cool to be tall. Even when I'm not wearing heels people tell me I'm tall and I always take it as a complement. The good thing is I can always see everybody in the room.
It's strange for my friends when they see me on TV and in magazines, because the person that they see doing interviews and pictures on the red carpet is not the person that they know.
I'd probably start charging for medical timeouts. I think we'd all see who really uses them and who doesn't.
Within a few years the name 'Maria Sharapova' will be a brand as universally recognized as Calvin Klein, BMW and Rolex.
My style when I was younger was still unique to me. I didn't necessarily dress by the trends, but I was always aware of what was trendy at the time and how I could apply it to my own sense of style.
