Serena Williams Quotes

I really think a champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall

The success of every woman should be the inspiration to another. We should raise each other up. Make sure you're very courageous: be strong, be extremely kind, and above all be humble.

With a defeat, when you lose, you get up, you make it better, you try again. That's what I do in life, when I get down, when I get sick, I don't want to just stop. I keep going and I try to do more. Everyone always says never give up but you really have to take that to heart and really do never definitely give up. Keep trying.

I am lucky that whatever fear I have inside me, my desire to win is always stronger.

Luck has nothing to do with it, because I have spent many, many hours, countless hours, on the court working for my one moment in time, not knowing when it would come.

We're sisters, we're roommates, we're all that.

I don't like to lose-at anything... Yet I've grown most not from victories, but setbacks. If winning is God's reward, then losing is how he teaches us.

Everyone's dream can come true if you just stick to it and work hard.

You have to believe in yourself when no one else does.

I always believe I can beat the best, achieve the best. I always see myself in the top position.

It's me, and I love me. I learned to love me. I've been like this my whole life, and I embrace me. I love how I look. I love that I'm a full woman and I'm strong and I'm powerful and I'm beautiful at the same time. There's nothing wrong with that.

Think of all the girls who could become top athletes but quit sports because they're afraid of having too many defined muscles and being made fun of or called unattractive.

I think in life you should work on yourself until the day you die.

You just have to prove to yourself that you can go out there and be the best that you can be and not prove anything to anyone.

I like to wear classic silhouettes and add a punch to it.

Growing up I wasn't the richest, but I had a rich family in spirit. Standing here with 19 championships is something I never thought would happen. I went on a court just with a ball and a racket and with a hope.

If you can keep playing tennis when somebody is shooting a gun down the street, that's concentration.

Am I the greatest? I don't know. I'm the greatest that I can be.

Since I don't look like every other girl, it takes a while to be okay with that. To be different. But different is good.

Victory is very, very sweet. It tastes better than any dessert you've ever had.

You can be whatever size you are, and you can be beautiful both inside and out. We're always told what's beautiful and what's not, and that's not right.

Will I have to explain to my daughter that her brother is gonna make more money doing the exact same job because he's a man? If they both played sports since they were three years old, they both worked just as hard, but because he's a boy, they're gonna give him more money? Like, how am I gonna explain that to her? In tennis we've had great pioneers that paved the way - including Venus [Williams], who fought so hard for Wimbledon to pay women the same prize money they pay men, and Billie Jean King, who is one of the main reasons Title IX exists.

I just never give up. I fight to the end. You can't go out and say, 'I want a bag of never-say-die spirit.' It's not for sale. It has to be innate.

I went on the courts with just a ball and a racket and a hope...and that's all I had.

When you lose, you get up, you make it better, you TRY AGAIN.

I've always been a fighter and I've always fought through things my whole life.

I love who I am, and I encourage other people to love and embrace who they are. But it definitely wasn't easy - it took me a while.

I've had to learn to fight all my life - got to learn to keep smiling. If you smile things will work out.

My smile is my favorite part of my body. I think a smile can make your whole body.

I always say if I play my best it's difficult to beat me

Nothing comes to a sleeper but a dream.

I'm an athlete and I'm black, and a lot of black athletes go broke. I do not want to become a statistic, so maybe I overcompensate. But I'm paranoid. Oprah told me a long time ago, 'You sign every check. Never let anyone sign any checks.'

I think I can improve a lot. I think I can get a lot better. I feel like there's much, much more I can do.

I'm a perfectionist. I'm pretty much insatiable. I feel there's so many things I can improve on.

I am not a robot. I have a heart and I bleed.

If I'm winning, I have to act like I'm not bored. If it's A tough match, I have to act like I'm having A good time. I'm a drama queen.

I love "Phenomenal Woman." The experiences she had of being African American in the U.S. - that itself is a task. I appreciate the hardships Maya Angelou went through for our generation. I'm super influenced by the black people that paved the way for us.

If Plan A isn't working, I have Plan B, Plan C, and even Plan D.

I'm really exciting. I smile a lot, I win a lot, and I'm really sexy.

I'm a high-performance athlete: I'm running, I'm sprinting, I'm sliding, I'm doing pretty much everything and the last thing I want to worry about is my chest. I want to just worry about playing the sport at the highest level that I can.

It's remarkable she [Venus Williams] plays at all, given her Sjögren's syndrome [an autoimmune disorder that can cause joint pain]. She's back, winning tournaments. She didn't allow society to tell her, "You have this disease; you can't do that anymore." I look at her, like, "She's not playing at 100 percent. You are. You don't have excuses." Knowing what she went through helped me try to be a more positive person.

I really hope that I can be helpful in that journey because I do believe that women deserve the same pay. We work just as hard as men do. I've been working, playing tennis, since I was three years old. And to be paid less just because of my sex - it doesn't seem fair.

I think you have to love yourself before you fall in love. I'm still learning to love myself.

My smile is my favorite part of my body. I think a smile can make your whole body. I want women to know that it's ok. That you can be whatever size you are and be beautiful inside and out.

Family's first, and that's what matters most. We realize that our love goes deeper than the tennis game.

If I have a daughter and she plays tennis, and I have a son who plays tennis, I wouldn't say that my son deserves more money because he's a man. I would say they deserve the same amount of money.

Legendary? I don't know. I'm just Serena.

I'm Serena Williams on the court, but away I have so many different names. I call myself Butterfly.

I don't have anything to prove ever, ever in my life. If I have something to prove, what does that mean for everyone else? And I think everyone should have that attitude.

For the younger sisters, we always look up to the older sisters because they're always ahead of us and they always win.