A biography for Jimmy Whitehasn’t been written yet.
“I would have prepared differently before big matches but I wouldn't change my life.”
“I did abuse the game a bit because I didn't give it the respect sometimes.”
“It meant so much to me lifting the Alex Higgins Trophy at Goffs.”
“The worst problem I've probably had was the gambling - you can do your money in the bookies a lot quicker than you can do it in the pub.”
“I'm lucky to be alive.”
“Everything for me was to beat the system, the way I played was to beat the system.”
“It sounds strange to be world champion at the Crucible.”
“I was never a playboy but I was an out and about boy.”
“We go out and have a drink occasionally. We're quite happy to go for a nice meal and go the theatre or something.”
“I could be in Spain, spending my time playing bad golf; financially I don't need to play snooker. I play because I love it.”
“Believe me, I feel the same way now about snooker as I did when I was 13.”
“I've always been one of the best players with the rest but I'd rather be able to reach the shot without it.”
“Alex Higgins was my hero, so to play in Belfast, at the superb Waterfront Hall, is very special to me.”
“I play poker face to face.”
“Snooker lifted me out of depression.”
“Golf and snooker are similar. They are ball games that you don't have to be super fit for. It's not like boxing or football when, at 35, you are on your way home.”
“Talent, it can become a trap.”