Billie Jean King Quotations

When they take surveys of women in business, of the Fortune 500, the successful women, 80% of them, say they were in sports as a young woman.

When we reach the point where the women athletes are getting their pick of dates just as easily as the men athletes, then we've really and truly arrived. Parity at last!

Tennis is a perfect combination of violent action taking place in an atmosphere of total tranquillity.

Everyone has people in their lives that are gay, lesbian or transgender or bisexual. They may not want to admit it, but I guarantee they know somebody.

It's just really important that we start celebrating our differences. Let's start tolerating first, but then we need to celebrate our differences.

No one changes the world who isn't obsessed.

Champions keep playing until they get it right.

Be bold. If you're going to make an error, make a doozy, and don't be afraid to hit the ball.

I think self-awareness is probably the most important thing towards being a champion.

The main thing is to care. Care very hard, even if it is only a game you are playing.

A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning.

There is no life for girls in team sports past Little League. I got into tennis when I realized this, and because I thought golf would be too slow for me, and I was too scared to swim.

Sports teaches you character, it teaches you to play by the rules, it teaches you to know what it feels like to win and lose-it teaches you about life.

It is very hard to be a female leader. While it is assumed that any man, no matter how tough, has a soft side... and female leader is assumed to be one-dimensional.

Women's sports is still in its infancy. The beginning of women's sports in the United States started in 1972, with the passage of Title 9 for girls to finally get athletic scholarships.

The old boy network is still very strong and very true. Just look at the stock exchange and how many men and women are there. It is still very much run by men.

In the seventies we had to make it acceptable for people to accept girls and women as athletes. We had to make it okay for them to be active. Those were much scarier times for females in sports.

I used to be told if I talked about my sexuality in any way that we wouldn't have a tennis tour.

Men can have a huge turnover of sponsorship and still survive a lot better than the women. But the women's ratings are better, at least at home in the United States than in the men's tennis.

I will tell you King's First Law of Recognition: You never get it when you want it, and then when it comes, you get too much.

I would just never out anybody. I think everyone has to find it in their own way and their own time.

Women get the attention when we get into the men's arena, and that's sad.

I wanted to use sports for social change.

Ever since that day when I was 11 years old, and I wasn't allowed in a photo because I wasn't wearing a tennis skirt, I knew that I wanted to change the sport.

In 1973, women got 59 cents on the dollar; now we are getting 74 cents on the dollar. In the area of finance and business, we are at 68 cents on the dollar.

I love to promote our sport. I love grass-roots tennis. I love coaching. I love all parts of the sport. I love the business side.

Any therapist will tell you that when you're ready, you will come out. To be outed means you weren't ready.

That is where the power, opportunity, and choice come from-when you have money. Money equals opportunity. There is no question.

I think younger players probably just think they are who they are-they don't think about coming out. Unless you're number one in the world, nobody cares, usually.

I always liked co-ed events best so we have two men and two women on each team.

They're not put on earth to be martyrs; they have to want to come out. It depends on your culture, where you work, where you live. Each person's circumstances are unique.

At 62 you want to keep moving; that's important.

In 1973, a woman could not get a credit card without her husband or father or a male signing off on it.

A girl didn't get an athletic scholarship until the fall of 1972 for the very first time.

I like entrepreneurial people; I like people who take risks.

Men still get a lot more opportunity. It is still a big part of the old boy network. They have more companies they can get money from.

I knew after my first lesson what I wanted to do with my life.

It's fun to meet people from throughout the world who you don't have to explain yourself to.

Martina and I went through a very bad five years. Everything's very good between us now, but it was a long haul.

When I was outed, it was like, That's done.

I always wanted to help make tennis a team sport.

I didn't really care if I had a coach that much, me personally, because I was brought up to think for myself.

I have a lot to say, and if I'm not No. 1, I can't say it.

I like putting money back into what made my life, and tennis has been great to me.

I think it's impossible to judge whether another person should come out. You just hope they will on their own time and their own terms.

I was always in the tennis business-from 1968. I was in tournaments and also on World Team Tennis teams as well.

I would love to be a player today. I had the right personality for it.

If your partner wants to be private, you have to respect that.

Martina's gone with people who don't want to be out, and it drives her crazy because she'd rather be open.

Trust and respect is something you earn, not something that is given.

I like to see what future generations are thinking about.

As far as U.S. tennis, we need new stars coming up in the pipeline, but I don't know if we have it.

When a child signs up for tennis, he or she is put on a team. I put them in a circle and then I make sure they name their own team. I would have them do their skill drills as a team and their fun drills together as a team, then they have to have a match at the end of every week. They can't just have what they call a lesson today every week.

You want people to feel like they belong to something. And not be elitist. You don't want us to be elitist.

Don't worry about what people say.

I think it's really important to have portion control. I don't believe in losing weight quickly.

It's important to try to get people to think about women's wellness.

Don't go into debt and don't spend a lot. It's not how much money you make, it's how much you spend.

In business, everything starts with integrity. Otherwise it falls apart, though it does take time to find out who has integrity.

I always respect right off the bat because we are human, but then over time you learn who the person truly is, just like they learn about you. Hope it works out really well, and you hope that builds a stronger connection over time. You can't be friends with everybody.

Bobby Riggs was one of my heroes. I admired him. That's one of the reasons I beat him - because I respected him.

Female athletes are stereotyped by the general population--and usually as homosexuals.

It's your birthday today, so what would you say, if we turned that frown upside down

People say, "Do you know how much a million dollars is?" I don't have a clue. How many Big Macs will it buy me?

Being Number One isn't everything to me, but for those few hours on the court it's way ahead of whatever's in second place.

I've never cared that much for cementing my place in history. Sports is so transitory, so ephemeral. It just seems like so much nonsense comparing me to Helen Wills Moody or Suzanne Lenglen or anybody else from some other time. One lesson you learn from sports is that life goes on without you.

In the complete overall history of tennis, I figure I'll be worth a sentence or two.... That's why my place in the all-time rankings means so very little to me, because I know I won't be anybody's number one, and it's that same old thing: if you're not number one, then what does it really matter?

Our love one's are never gone, they have just popped into another room.

Each point I play is in the now moment. The last point means nothing, the next point means nothing.

Champions take responsibility. When the ball is coming over the net, you can be sure I want the ball.

It's really impossible for athletes to grow up. On the one hand, you're still a child, still playing a game. But on the other hand, you're a superhuman hero that everyone dreams of being. No wonder we have such a hard time understanding who we are.

Don't be afraid to hit the ball.

The trouble with being number one in the world - in anything- is that it takes a certain mentality to attain that position, and that is something of a driving, perfectionist attitude, so that once you do achieve number one, you don't relax and enjoy it.

Love, light & blessings be On this day I wish to say 'Health & Happiness to come your way' Happy Birthday

Winning comes down to who can execute under pressure.

Create your legacy, and pass the baton.

Winning is very tangible, it's very exciting, it's very pleasing, but it's momentary. If you can do things that last, that each generation can build upon, then that's when you're cooking.

There is no life for girls in team sports past Little League. I got into tennis when I realized this, and because I thought golf would be too slow for me, and I was too scared to swim.

I hate being called a homosexual because I don't feel that way. It really upsets me ... Being gay can happen in any walk of life, in any world. If you have one gay experience, does that mean you're gay? If you have one heterosexual experience, does that mean you're straight? Life doesn't work quite so cut and dried.

Marriage isn't a 50-50 proposition very often. It's more like 100-0 one moment and 0-100 the next.

The main thing is not a matter of wanting to win; the main thing is being scared to lose.

Ask Nureyev to stop dancing, ask Sinatra to stop singing, then you can ask me to stop playing.

Tennis is a game of angles. You never have time to figure the angles. It's practiced. It's so practiced that it becomes an instinct. You just know where to put the ball. You just feel it. It has been computed into your brain so many times ­ it is there.

We have, or have had women presidents or prime ministers in Liberia, Chile, Germany, Great Britain...and yet the US of A still hasn't had a women president. It's just beyond my thinking. Look at Congress...

It's about learning your craft. That's a wonderful thing--especially with today's consumerism and instant gratification. You can'tbuy that. It's about making decisions, corrections, choices. I don't think it's so much about becoming a tennis player. It's about becoming a person.

Victory is fleeting. Losing is forever.

You've got to win in sports - that's talent - but you've also got to learn how to remind everybody how you did win, and how often. That comes with experience.

Sports are a microcosm of society.

When people tell you not to believe in your dreams, and they say “Why?”, say “Why not?

Champions take responsibility.

For me, losing a tennis match isn't failure, it's research.

I feel that tennis is an art form that is capable of moving the players and the audience - at least a knowledgeable audience-in almost sensual ways. When I'm performing at my absolute best, I think that some of the euphoria I feel must be transmitted to the audience.

The most important words that have helped me in life, when things have gone right or when things have gone wrong are 'accept responsibility.'

I try to perfect my strong points and make my weaknesses adequate.

Ladies, here's a hint. If you're up against a girl with big boobs, bring her to the net and make her hit backhand volleys. That's the hardest shot for the well-endowed.

Champions adjust and pressure is a privilege.

Some people do have softer boundaries.

I always listen, I ask children, I even ask adults in tennis, "What are your children playing?" And most of the time it's not tennis. It's pathetic.

No matter how tough, no matter what kind of outside pressure, no matter how many bad breaks along the way, I must keep my sights on the final goal, to win, win, win-and with more love and passion than the world has ever witnessed in any performance.

Tennis taught me so many lessons in life. One of the things it taught me is that every ball that comes to me, I have to make a decision. I have to accept responsibility for the consequences every time I hit a ball.