Quotes from Billie Jean King

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

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

Don't be afraid to hit the ball.

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.

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

I got to see the best players in the world every year the week after the U.S. Nationals, which is now known as the US Open, in Los Angeles. That made a huge difference in my life.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Be bold. If you're going to make an error, make a doozy.

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.

A perfect combination of violent action taking place in an atmosphere of total tranquility.

Sports are a microcosm of society.

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.

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

I wanted to use sports for social change.

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.

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

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

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.