Be bold. If you're going to make an error, make a doozy, and don't be afraid to hit the ball.
– Billie Jean King
Champions keep playing until they get it right.
– Billie Jean King
I think self-awareness is probably the most important thing towards being a champion.
– Billie Jean King
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.
– Billie Jean King
Ladies, here's a hint; if you're playing against a friend who has big boobs, bring her to the net and make her hit backhand volleys. That's the hardest shot for the well-endowed.
– Billie Jean King
Tennis is a perfect combination of violent action taking place in an atmosphere of total tranquillity.
– Billie Jean King
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.
– Billie Jean King
Women get the attention when we get into the men's arena, and that's sad.
– Billie Jean King
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.
– Billie Jean King
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.
– Billie Jean King
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.
– Billie Jean King
Sports are a microcosm of society.
– Billie Jean King
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.
– Billie Jean King
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.
– Billie Jean King
In 1973, women got 59 cents on the dollar now we are getting 74 cents on the dollar. In the area of finance and business, we are at 68 cents on the dollar.
– Billie Jean King
If your partner wants to be private, you have to respect that.
– Billie Jean King
I wanted to use sports for social change.
– Billie Jean King
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.