Quotes from Martina Navratilova

Tennis has given me soul.

Tennis is the purest form of democracy. There was a symbiotic, chicken-and-egg relationship for me between democracy and tennis.

Gender is irrelevant. Certainly the tennis ball doesn't know what the gender was of the tennis coach.

The Czech tennis federation wasn't holding me back, but they could still pull the plug anytime they wanted.

I can teach many sports, but obviously, tennis is the one. When you do other sports, you see things from different perspectives: different footwork drills, body positions, angles and geometry. All that stuff is helpful, and so when I do other sports, I can see things, because once you know one sport, then the other sport becomes more clear.

I just wanted to play tennis. It wasn't a job. It was an ambition. I knew I could make money at it. I was 18 - old enough to think I could do it, young enough not to consider the consequences.

Sport doesn't know barriers, really. You are judged on your performance... how far you can jump, how fast you can run, how well you can hit a tennis ball.

I think retirement beats the heck out of life after death, that's for sure.

The Williams girls compete extremely hard on court because they hate losing - it's just that they haven't played an awful lot of tennis over the years.

Playing tennis, I didn't tie in my self-worth into winning or losing matches.

Ted Cruz, if he's elected president, the first thing he will do is return Don't Ask Don't Tell and roll back same-sex marriage laws. Which is law - hello - you can't really take it away. It's really terrifying the direction we're going in now.

So many athletes are afraid to use their platform to do the right thing and speak what they feel, and that's very depressing. Sure, they are afraid of insulting people and losing money because of it, and everyone wants to make the maximum amount of money in their lifetime. But at the expense of who you are? I don't know. That just wasn't in my DNA.

I shouldn't say I'm looking forward to leading a normal life, because I don't know what normal is. This has been normal for me.

Keeping a journal of what's going on in your life is a good way to help you distill what's important and what's not.

I was always controversial, being gay, so nothing was more controversial than that.

I was political by coming out of the womb. I was gay, and I wanted to play tennis.

Players are saying, 'I don't have to have a coach who has only played a little bit. Instead, I can have somebody who won something'.

Sure I know where the press room is - I just look for where they throw the dog meat.

Goodbye 2010. If you were a fish, I'd throw you back.

You don't have to be pretty for people to come and see you play. At the same time, if you're a good athlete, it doesn't mean you're not a woman.

Security used to be an inconvenience sometimes, but now it's a necessity all the time.

I've always been a rebel, always curious about the world around me.

Just by being out you're doing your part. It's like recycling. You're doing your part for the environment if you recycle; you're doing your part for the gay movement if you're out.

I am healthy. I have been blessed with a very good body, and I have worked hard at it. I had surgery on my toe, and I'm still recovering from that. That's the only joint that was hurting. Earlier, I had a knee replacement, hip replacement, shoulder surgeries, but I have been lucky. I don't feel any pain when I play.