Ryan Zimmerman

I don't think the money matters to me anymore. I just want to continue to play baseball and keep playing baseball in D.C.

For me, my shoulder has taken a lot of banging, whether it's from diving, sliding or throwing.

A lot of people go through injuries and things like that.

Getting in the box and facing live pitching is always an adjustment period.

Everyone is going to make errors. It's part of the game. Nobody wants it to happen. Of course, you feel bad. You play baseball long enough, that kind of stuff happens. It's part of the game. If you let it consume you, that's what gets you.

My parents were there to support us in whatever we wanted to do. But if we did something, they wanted to make sure we were committed. We weren't going to do it half way.

My parents let me and my brother do what we wanted to do as long as we did it the right way.

There isn't one way to raise a kid. Everyone does things differently. That's one thing my dad taught me. You have to go through it and figure it out.

You obviously appreciate your parents, but you really don't have a deep appreciation for them until you kind of go through it and see how hard it is, how much work it takes.

You know, you can learn a lot from your past, but for me, the past is the past.

The people that play this game and don't want to win a World Series are here for the wrong reasons. Usually, those are the guys you don't want on the team. That's the ultimate goal.

The Lerner family have been nothing but good to me and my family.

Once you get in the postseason, anything can happen.

The days of me playing third base like I used to - I don't want to say are behind me, but it's harder and harder to do that on a consistent basis. It's not because of a lack of effort or lack of work. I don't like to make excuses, but things change over time.

I take a lot of pride in defense and try and dive all over the place.

Baseball is baseball, whether you are playing in High A or Double-A or the Major Leagues.

That's the great thing about baseball: every season is completely different.

The system, the Draft are put in place to help teams that are struggling get better - be able to compete.

The positive of being bad was having a lot of good Draft picks.

Even in those years when we were losing, it's playing baseball for a living and having a good time. I learned a lot from those years. I made a lot of good friends and a lot of good teammates. I wouldn't give back those years for anything.

As soon as you take anything for granted and stop working, somebody is ready to take your job. So until the last day I play, that's the way I'll go about my business - try to get better each year and try to help the team win.

I'm a big believer in, if you're ready to play, you're ready to play.

Baseball is such a sport of every day, grinding it out. You're going to have good weeks, bad weeks.

You're gonna be crappy sometimes, but you have to learn to get better from failing.

You should feel like you're the best player out there, and you should tell yourself you are. You should be the guy everyone thinks will get the game-winning hit.

I think I've been lucky enough to play for a long time. Really lucky to play for the same team.

You can't get the big hit every night.

There are a handful of guys who can really throw in the outfield.

Everyone thinks it's easy to catch the ball and throw it back in. But there are a lot of situations that you have to think about before the ball is hit.

Nothing is more frustrating than not being to do what you love to do.

I think a lot of athletes, with as much social media and publicity and stuff like that that we get, I think a lot of athletes do a really great job of using that to bring awareness to causes that are special to them.

Everyone always says, 'Don't take it for granted.' I don't think we do take it for granted, but sometimes you get caught up in the grind and you get into the routine and you don't really realize how cool it is to play baseball for a living.

I think getting a job and learning how to work with other people, if you were supposed to be there, you had to be there, I think it's good.

It doesn't matter what age I am - I think you owe it to the game, you owe it to your organization, you work hard and you try to produce and try to be able to be out there whenever you're asked to and contribute and help the team win. That's kind of the way I've looked at it my entire career.

I think it's easier to play in a playoff race. This is exciting. It's a lot easier to come to the park with the bangs and bruises everyone has when you're in first place.

Talent wins.

I think experience and learning how to win are overrated.

Baseball is baseball whether you're in last place in August or in first place in August.

Few players stay in the same place their whole career.

Nobody ever wants to say they don't want to play.

It's kind of nice to wake up and feel good every morning.

I enjoy playing baseball. Not being able to do it is tough.

Any time you can do anything special, it's fun.

Any time you do anything in this game, it's humbling. It's a really hard game.

It's way more fun when you're expected to win close to 100 games.

Four or five days in a row, even if you only play four or five innings, you still have to go through the whole routine of getting ready to play a game and then going out there for those four or five innings.

When I stay on the field, I still feel like I'm a really good player. And that's the goal.

This is a game of adjustments. The ones who can make them the easiest are the ones who are usually around the longest and succeed the most.

Whenever you have any sort of surgery, nothing's guaranteed.

I think I can play first effectively.