Cast Away

Excerpt from Andrew Agassi's (awesome) autobiography OPEN, p 8-9:

Tennis is a sport in which you talk to yourself. No athletes talk to themselves like tennis players. Pitchers, golfers, goalkeepers, they mutter to themselves, of course, but tennis players talk to themselves—and answer. In the heat of a match, tennis players look like lunatics in a public square, ranting and swearing and conducting Lincoln-Douglas debates with their alter egos. Why? Because tennis is so damned lonely. Only boxers can understand the loneliness of tennis players—and yet boxers have their corner men and managers. Even a boxer's opponent provides a kind of companionship, someone he can grapple with and grunt at. In tennis you stand face-to-face with the enemy, trade blows with him, but never touch him or talk to him, or anyone else. The rules forbid a tennis player from even talking to his coach while on the court. People sometimes mention the track-and-field runner as a comparably lonely figure, but I have to laugh. At least the runner can feel and smell his opponents. They're inches away. In tennis you're on an island...

Try being a screenwriter.

(I'm rather fond of Andre Agassi's autobiography, if I've not made that clear.)

I've a whole team of people representing me and I *maybe* see some of them once or twice a year. Otherwise, I'm on my own.

I'm my own trainer. I give myself pep talks. I'm sure I make the work harder than it needs to be on a journey toward finding a better way to get it all done. And what a stunningly lonely journey it is. At least during these lean years. The level one years when you're just trying to establish your name.

Have you done anything I've seen?

No but you'll hear about me soon.

I'm certain of this.

It's 4/20. Smoke 'em if you've got 'em.