"It was just one of those years where there was never a point when I felt that every start I'd go out there and feel comfortable and just make pitches. It felt like every start, something wasn't right. Every game was a battle. I'm 37 years old. I have a bad year and everybody's talking about you're on the downside of your career. You know what? I am. But there's a difference between being a down year and being done."
-Glavine on his first season struggles with the Mets

"I wasn't prepared for the amount of attention I got from the get-go. "Every day, it was my first practice, first side session, first game, first road trip. Every game. There are nine or 10 beat writers, columnists, TV. I had that every day. Then you have the added pressures of you're around new teammates, a new team. You try to impress everybody. It all adds up. It's like you're dropping all this stuff into a pot, and you're mixing it up and you don't know what you'll get."
--Glavine on playing in New York

"We knew there would be some criticism. We talked about it before it happened and Mike and I were sensitive to it, and so was Mr. Wilpon. But for what it meant to me and my family, even if it got some negative attention, so what? In a year that didn't go so well, that was definitely the highlight of the season. Twenty-five years down the line no one will remember that, and we will always have the memory of two brothers playing together. That's pretty awesome."
--Glavine on the Mets' decision to call up his younger brother Mike at the end of the 2003 season.

"It's the way they take care of your family, the way our wives are treated, the way our kids are treated."
--Glavine on the Mets' front office.

"I've got a better chance of going 4-for-4 than pitching a no-hitter."
--Glavine on his near no hitter against the Rockies 5/23

"I'm pitching now the way everyone thought I was capable of when I came here. You don't want to take anything for granted until I heard I was on the team. And now I'm thrilled about it. It should be a fun time."
--Glavine on being selected to the 2004 All-Star Game

"I gave Jack the sales pitch and the reasons he should be on the team.  To be honest, he agreed."
--Met's Manager Art Howe on talking to Jack McKeon (NL All-Star Game Manager) about why Glavine should make the All-Star Team.

"It's not going to cause a rift with me. We can all speculate till we're blue in the face. But Kaz is our shortstop. I know he's trying to make plays just like I'm trying to make pitches. I'm not perfect, so I'll be the last person to complain. That kind of thing [a rift] is something I don't want any part of. I believe we are what we are. Mind your own business and rake your own leaves."
--Glavine on rumors of a supposed rift between pitchers and position players, particularly Kaz Matsui.

"I never got to the seatbelt."

"You think what anybody would think. 'Oh my God.' It was clear we were going to get hit and hit hard."

"New York has hit me hard in more ways than one."

"Listen, everybody has things in their lives, in their careers, that test them. I've certainly been tested here. It's been a mental grind for me since I've been here. And I can't tell you it's been what I anticipated. But my mindset remains the same: Things are going to get better here. I'm going to help make them better. And, hopefully, I'll be able to laugh about a lot of what's happened here already. Maybe even what happened yesterday. That's the way I approach things, the way I'm made. Things that happen to you shape you. I really believe that. And things like what happened to me yesterday certainly help me keep everything that happens in baseball in perspective. Because I'm smart enough to know things could have been worse."
--Glavine on his taxi accident where he got banged up and  lost two teeth and required stitches in his lower lip.

"I came in here [Friday] and said, 'who are you, who are you, and who are you?  Walking in, I wasn't sure if a guy was someone's brother or a new teammate. I've never seen anything like it."
--Glavine on joining the Mets in Colorado and finding all of the new players to replace the Mets on the disabled list. (Five in the last 10 days: McEwing, Piazza, Reyes, Matsui and Zambrano)

"That's something he wants to do, and he's stubborn. If he wants to do it, I believe he'll do it. If he wants something bad enough, he'll do it."
--Greg Maddux on why he thinks Tom Glavine will win 300 games.

"Tom approached us directly to help find a vehicle to fight this disease and promote awareness. He's a true humanitarian."
--Commissioner Bud Selig on Tom Glavine's involvement in making CureSearch a beneficiary of the Commissioner's Initiative For Kids Program.

"He has a tremendous focus. He doesn't seem to let anything around him affect his focus."
-Manager Art Howe on Tom Glavine.

"Tommy is one of the classiest guys in baseball. And the benefit of having a class guy like Tommy Glavine behind this is what made all the difference."
--Howard Smith, senior vice president for consumer products for Major League Baseball, about Glavine persuading baseball to take up the CureSearch cause.

"I've always said you're an athlete only for so long. You're a person forever."
-Glavine on getting involved with CureSearch.

"I think maybe some combination of [Art Howe and Bobby Valentine]. Somebody like Bobby Cox. Is there somebody like that out there? I don't know. There's a different dynamic here. There's more to consider."
--Glavine on what he is looking for in a manager next season.

"It's the same old story that I've had in the last month. I feel good in spurts, and then I don't feel good in spurts. And I'm trying to find the groove that I had for the first half of the year but I haven't had for the last month. It certainly hasn't been there the last five or six times I've pitched, and I've got to keep trying to work at it and try to find it."
--Glavine after his no decision on Sept. 18, discussing his pitching struggles the second half of the season

"I can set an example, but I can't speak up because I'm not performing the way I should be. I think guys probably would listen, but in the back of their minds, they might be saying 'Rake your own leaves.' And they have the right to think that way. There's a voice in the back of my mind, too."
--Glavine on not speaking up in the clubhouse on the Mets struggles.

"I hate to use this as a reason, but I was locked in before the accident, and since then I haven't been able to make pitches. I wasn't winning before I got hurt, but I was pitching well enough to win, giving us a chance. But since then I've been missing inside. If I'm right, when I go inside, either I get an out or I set up the next pitch. But since then, I'm getting further in a hole so I have to make a perfect pitch. It's correctable. I'm not that far off. But right now I'm not consistent enough not to get in trouble. And I'm not trusting my stuff. With me, when my location is a little off, it makes a big difference."
--Glavine on his struggles since the taxi accident where he lost two teeth.

"It's nice to get a win and feel a little like I know what I was doing out there. I'm not exactly where I want to be in terms of location. I was a little iffy coming inside to right-handers and away to left-handers. If I'm not able to throw the inside strike to righties, it's a problem. It's a really fine line and it's hard to explain."
--Glavine on getting his 10th win of the season

"It's old. There's no other way to put it. It's been a disappointing year when you look at my record. But when you go back over the season, I maintain I've pitched well though it hasn't turned out that way. It's easier to look in the mirror and say I stunk, but when you don't feel like that, it's difficult. Tonight, if you could go back over the game and say I didn't do this or I didn't do that and made a bunch of mistakes, it would make it easier to swallow. But when the game doesn't go the way you wanted it to and there's not a lot you would have changed, it's more difficult in the end to look up at the scoreboard. It's been an all-too-familiar story for me this year."
--Glavine after dropping to 10-14 on the season with a 5-2 loss to the Braves

"I respected his ability as player and how he went about the game and his business, and for the last number of years learning from a great teacher in Joe Torre. He certainly has the pedigree as a player and the training as a coach. Hopefully that will all come together and he'll be a great manager and a huge asset for our team. In Willie's case you don't have to worry about the New York aspect of it. He's very familiar with New York and what the media obligations are like. From that standpoint, it's nothing new to him. As a first-time manager, obviously, there will be some concern from time to time, but the key is to surround him with good, knowledgeable coaches. And I'm sure Willie and Omar will put together a staff that will be good for us as a team. And we'll try and make Willie's job easier and enhance what he's able to do as a manager."
--Glavine on the hiring on Willie Randolph, the Mets new Manager

"These articles say baseball is reeling from these allegations. To me, there is nothing new. People have been talking about the steroid issue for several years now. What's coming out of the grand jury testimony, I don't think there's anything surprising. Yes, it's a big story. It absolutely needs to be addressed. But it shouldn't be surprising or earth-shattering to anybody."
--Glavine on the allegations involving players using steroids in major league baseball

"People forget that in terms of this agreement, it's only been in place a short period of time and the first period was just a testing phase. We've really been though only one year of mandatory testing. I think the program we had last year had some effect on guys. Did it go far enough and what steps can be taken to totally eliminate the suspicion, both from player to player and fan to player? We'll continue to tweak and look at it."
-- Glavine on baseball's drug policy

"They're baseball artists while everyone else is air-brushing."
-Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson on Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux