"It's almost a joke when some fan tells me I'm a great man. I'm just a ballplayer who works hard trying to get by." "I've never thought that was anybody's business but my own." - on his relationship with Marilyn Monroe. "They call a man graceful because he hits a little ball with a certain swing. My father hammered piles on a railroad out of Martinez for 10 cents an hour to support a family. That was grace." "I don't have a coherent answer as to why that is. I don't try to knock people, hurt their feelings or beat them out of money, but I also haven't tried to create or maintain an image. I work to maintain my privacy." - on his status as a cultural icon. "There was no grass. We played on asphalt with a big ball - a softball - but we threw it overhanded and played by regular baseball rules. When I was 11 or 12, I started playing with older fellas, guys in their 20s. I guess they saw something in me." "There is always some kid who may be seeing me for the first or last time. I owe him my best." "Because there might be someone who never saw me play before". - when asked why he tries so hard. "At my age, I'm just happy to be named Greatest Living Anything." - on being named baseball's Greatest Living Player in 1969. "You start chasing a ball and your brain immediately commands your body to 'Run forward, bend, scoop up the ball, peg it to the infield,' then your body says, 'Who me?'" "You always get a special kick on opening day, no matter how many you go through. You look forward to it like a birthday party when you're a kid. You think something wonderful is going to happen." "The test of an outfielder's skill comes when he has to go against the fence to make a catch." "When baseball is no longer fun, it's no longer a game." "I'd like to thank the good Lord for making me a Yankee." "If anyone wants to know why three kids in one family made it to the big leagues they just had to know how we helped each other and how much we practiced back then. We did it every minute we could." "I can remember a reporter asking me for a quote, and I didn't know what a quote was. I thought it was some kind of soft drink." "I came up twice in the game with the bases loaded and both times I hit balls into the alley, 450 feet away. Home runs in any other park. Well, each time my own brother robbed me by making catches on the warning track. Instead of a possible eight RBI, or at least five or six, I got nothing. That night, Dom came over to my place for dinner. I remember letting him in the door and then not speaking to him until we were almost done eating. I was that mad." "A ball player has to be kept hungry to become a big leaguer. That's why no boy from a rich family has ever made the big leagues." "Too many kids today are playing major league ball and don't belong there."