Quotes By Billie Jean King

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

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

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.

No one changes the world who isn't obsessed.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

I always wanted to help make tennis a team sport.

Sports are a microcosm of society.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.