"Since the beginning, I always loved the game. When you grow up in Montreal, one day you want to be a professional hockey player. When I was six or seven, I knew that was what I wanted."
-Mario Lemieux
"One thing I hate is people screaming at me. If you want me to do something, talk to me. When someone screams at me to hurry up, I slow down."
-Mario Lemieux
"Every day is a great day for hockey."
-Mario Lemieux
"I'm not sure Mario is going to get accolafes he deserves, especially from outside the game. But from within, the players, the people who follow closely, realize exactly what he's broughtto the table, exactly what he has done. People tend to forget...hockey was dying in Pittsburgh before he got there. I played there. It was almost dead. I'm sorry, but the NHL would not have a franchise in Pittsburgh today had Mario not come along. Think about it, no hockey in Pittsburgh."
-Wayne Gretzky
"I don't know if I would have the dedication, the endurance, the will to do waht he's done."
-Tom Plasko, masseur-therapist
"Mario Lemieux is Mr. Pittsburgh."
-Andy Van Slyke, former Pirates center fielder
"Nobody sleeps like Mario. He lives for sleep. He hits the bed and that's it. It irritates the hell out of me."
-Terry Ruskowski, former Penguins winger
"Our savior has arrived."
-unidentified Penguins fan
"I remember the day of his last radiation treatment. He went to Philly. He got there about 4 o'clock and he played. I think hegets overlooked, what he's overcome. It's ridiculous. Everybody talks about Michael Jordan coming back from baseball, but Mario came back from cancer."
-Kevin Stevens
"I always knew he wasa great hockey player, but then when he fought cancer, that's when I realized how muchheart he had."
-Eric Pegram, Ex-Steeler
"He's the best player I've seen since I got into the league in '67. I've always said he's the most complete player I've seen because he can score, he can make plays, he's got the reach and, when you need defense, he can provide it."
-Scotty Bowman
"You have Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan...and Mario Lemieux. He's the best in hockey, in my opinion."
-Kordell Stewart
"It had been a great career. I mean, how many guys can say they averaged two points a game in their careers? It's too bad he's retiring too soon. The league is going to miss him. The fans are going to miss him. A real classy person and a great guy."
-John Bucyk
"I've been gifted. The world is full of people who not only haven't been gifted, but have had some thing taken away from them. All I have to do is see one of them, some little girl who can't walk, and then I don't think I'm such a hero anymore. I think that compared to them, I'm a very small article."
-Bobby Orr
"Blood, sweat, tears. No practice tommorow 'cause there's no one left to beat."
-Bobby Orr
"Forget about talent; worry about results."
-Bobby Orr
"If I can be half the hockey player that Bobby Orr was, I'll be happy."
-Ray Bourque
"Orr is the greatest young hockey player that's come along since I've been here."
-Bobby Hull
"I don't think you ever stopped Bobby Orr, you contained Bobby orr, but you NEVER stopped him!"
-Larry Robinson
"The greatest hockey player who ever lived: Bobby Orr, and I love him."
-Don Cherry