Billie Jean King Quotes

I have often been asked whether I am a women or an athlete. The question is absurd. Men are not asked that. I am an athlete. I am a women.

Pressure is a privilege - it only comes to those who earn it.

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

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.

Champions keep playing until they get it right.

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.

Natural talent only determines the limits of your athletic potential. It's dedication and a willingness to discipline your life that makes you great.

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

Reputation is what others think about you. What's far more important is character, because that is what you think about yourself.

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.

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.

My whole life has been about equal rights and opportunities. For me it really goes back to the health of mind, body and soul.

Pressure is a privilege ... it's what you do with it that matters.

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.

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

Don't let anyone define you. You define yourself.

When you oppress people either by gender, by race, by sexual orientation, when you do that and the doors become ajar, they will fly open and they will come and they have.

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.

You have got to want to be the best before you can even begin to reach for that goal, and you have got to be prepared to sacrifice a lot to get there.

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

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.

Don't worry about what people say.

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.

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.

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

Champions adjust and pressure is a privilege.

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.

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

I always think it's best to pretend you're in a tenuous position. Just as a player, you always want to stay in the now and work hard but also have goals for the future. There's no promises in any entrepreneurial business. You have to really work hard every year and also try to envision where you want to go in the future at the same time.

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.

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

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.

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

Some people do have softer boundaries.

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.

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

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.

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

Create your legacy, and pass the baton.

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.

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.

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.

Winning comes down to who can execute under pressure.

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

I wanted to use sports for social change.

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.

Sports are a microcosm of society.

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.