Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
As an athlete and as a woman, I get my confidence from playing sports because it shifts your focus from what your body looks like to what your body can do for you. That's what we all should be doing. It shouldn't be about looking perfect.
I never count calories. Counting calories is stressful and intimidating, so I avoid it! I know that if I'm eating something that's a treat, I don't need to count it because I mostly eat healthy and am conscious of what I'm putting in my body.
The thing that's most important in getting you in the best mindest is just being prepared - having a great practice, and knowing that no matter what knowing you're going to go in with confidence. You need to have that confidence to power through.
I have a lot of good role models in my family for things off the court - like my older sister, who's a lawyer. I don't like writing papers, but she's helped me a lot. It's nice to have an art and business background because they tie together perfectly.
Losses have propelled me to even bigger places, so I understand the importance of losing. You can never get complacent because a loss is always around the corner. It's in any game that you're in - a business game or whatever - you can't get complacent.
I have always said that after sport, I wanted a life, I wanted an opportunity, I wanted to be able to do something. And if something happens - the economy falls out or the dollar is worthless, anything could happen - you have to be ready to work. And I'm ready.
Serena and I have done some great career planning, and we're playing really at the peak of our tennis right now. I think tennis has been a sport where people play this insane schedule from 14 years old, so of course at 26, it's over. We've really paced ourselves.
If I go down, it's never easy. At least my opponent knows they have to go to the end of the earth to take me out no matter what the circumstances. I do try to compete. Even if it's not your best day, I just try to walk off the court knowing I gave 100,000 percent.
After almost 30 years of playing this sport, I've learned something. I've learned that, no matter what happens, or happened... or where you are, or where you've been... at the end of the day: tennis is tennis. It's always, always tennis. And there's nothing better.
I think I've been fortunate to be at the top of the game and in the media for years, and a lot of times, people want to be your friend when you're on the top. You know, there have been times when I've been injured and I never got a phone call. So that's the way it is.
The big push for me is the Olympics this year. If I'm healthy, I'm not worried about my ranking. I think I can hit the ball. It's just about my body cooperating. It's about being able to play matches in a row. Right now, I'm not sure how much I can do with that, but we'll see.
Definitely sport matures you, if you let it. It definitely makes you grow up because you have to work so hard that if you can't, then you probably aren't going to have the mental capacity to handle it all. That probably played a role in growing up a little faster than maybe other people.
I think everyone deals with things in their own way. Everybody's different. My family are all different. None of us are the same. We all deal with different things in different ways. I think it's about knowing yourself, what pushes your buttons, and figuring out how to work with yourself.
It's amazing when tragedy strikes, how strong you find that you are, and I'd seen other people go through horrible things. And I just thought, "Wow, I would be a complete mess," and then suddenly when it happens, you realize you had more strength than you knew and it helps you to get through.
Sometimes, you know, once you pay your taxes and once you pay your expenses, once you've lived this life, things add up quickly. And it's easy to become a statistic. And that's something I've always tried to avoid, and I've always said, hey - not that it won't be me, that, hey, it could be me.
Women's tennis has been around for a very long time - we're talking about the 1800s. But women's soccer hasn't had such a long history, so now they're right at the beginning of really trying to make things equal. We need to continue not only to advocate for women but to have men advocating for women.
You know, growing up my - you know, I came from Compton, Calif., and, you know, it was a place where a lot of people did come out when a lot of people stayed. So I've been able to see the top and the bottom of life, and I think that balances you if you allow it to and if you remember where you came from.
You have to do things right to stay in business, and that's not easy, and that's a choice on a daily basis, the choices you make in how to run your business and how to have a point of differentiation and how to be true to your brand, how to offer something that people want and to offer something that you love.
Just always believe in yourself. "Champions adjust." It's a line I learned from Billie Jean King, and sometimes your dream adjusts. Be willing to adjust with it and see where your opportunities ... sometimes a door closes but a window opens, so just follow your dreams and continue. You never know where it's going to take you.
Most definitely always been a passion, and always been one of my goals in life as a young person, to have my own business. My dad gave us his entrepreneurial mindset, so that was also ingrained, as well as the tennis. So in a lot of ways it's a part of making my parents proud. I think we all want to make our parents proud, you know?
A lot of people say, "Oh, I get this high from working out." I've never felt that, maybe because I've worked out for so long it's just a norm for me to push super, super hard. I don't feel the euphoria. But at the end, when it's all done, I feel euphoric. I'm like, "Yes, the work is done." You just feel like a glowing feeling inside.
I've learned you can always achieve more than you thought you could. There are moments when I've walked off the court, and I'm like, 'I don't know how I won that match.' It was actually impossible, but it happened, and then you realize that you can push yourself much further than you ever thought, and you can make the impossible happen.
The outfit is inspired by Alice in Wonderland. It's kind of about a surprise, because when Alice goes down the rabbit hole, she finds all these things that are so surprising. This outfit is about having a surprise in a tennis dress, and showing some skin and then just having a print. Prints don't happen that often in tennis. So it's called the Wonderland dress.
At the end of the day, you just have to focus on winning. No one can take a win away from you. That's what I focused on. Life is not fair, so I don't go out there expecting it to be. I don't think any of us should go out expecting life to be fair. I think that's expecting too much, and I remind myself of that sometimes. You can get on with your life after that.
There were a lot of people shouting out. I know it's not proper tennis etiquette, but this is the first time I've ever played here that the crowd has been behind me like that. Today I felt American, you know, for the first time at the U.S. Open. So I've waited my whole career to have this moment and here it is. ... It was great. It was awesome. It was like winning gold.
If Id lived prior to the 1980s, it would have been different, because I would have been playing to prove African Americans are equal. Now, I dont necessarily feel I have to play for black people, because obviously theyre doing everything in all sports. If I can go out there and play for myself and not feel I have to stand for something other than what I want to do, thats good.
I think every single point will be important, .. I think more than anything, I'll just have to be able to compete better. When you're playing Serena Williams, you have to compete better than her. I got a lot of tricks from Serena just watching her. She inspired me so many times. I also got motivated by her in the early part of my career, and even now. I just have to compete better, bottom line.
I've learned about employee relations; I've learned about following your instinct. One of the biggest mistakes you can follow is not following your instincts, you know? A lot of times your instincts will tell you what to do if you have a good one. Now, if your instincts are terrible, then you ask for advice. But if you have good instincts, you definitely have to follow them, or else you regret them.
Whatever it is, people have issues and that affects you deeply. So you have to get to the bottom of it and not let that affect your life decisions and really understand why you're making the decisions you make so that way you can understand how to not do that, so I always encourage people to ask why and then to really understand you, because that's the only way to be your most successful and your most happy.
Sport teaches you so much, and you can translate that to other parts of life. But it's definitely a lot of dedication, not just for, you know, myself or the children, but the parents, the family finances, the money that you could be putting toward retirement you're using to buy tennis shoes and restring rackets and tennis lessons. So if you don't make it, then you may never retire. It's definitely a lot of risk.
Most of us have grown up, you know, I think there are very few people who have grown up in a home that was, like, super normal. You know, we all have dispositions because maybe you didn't have a mom or you didn't have a dad, maybe your mom died early or maybe mom and dad argued or they got a divorce or who knows? You have issues that maybe you've started younger or maybe you have your own issues because you have them.
I most certainly believe that when you're an athlete, that really translates to all sports. You just understand it, your body understands it, and your mind understands it. And you just - it just clicks. I've found that happening when I play other sports. I've seen it, like when I've hit the ball with other professional athletes, and you can see they're just learning so quickly. It's just something that's in their blood. So I think it was in my parents' blood and they understood.
I believe I live in a black and white. I think things are like either black or white. I don't really believe that much in the gray. I think that there's gray for a lot of people, but I don't live in the gray. I realize whatever action I have or take, it's going to have a consequence -- either good or bad. So I live my life in a way where I don't have bad consequences. I just notice there's a lot people around me just live in the gray. I don't know, for me, I'm just really straightforward.
I think there's more stressful periods than others when you're launching new things or going into a new business, or there are many things that can stress you out. Having to let people go, that's stressful. Never fun. But for the most part, I try to manage a schedule that's achievable and try not to make a schedule that's not. And a lot of times, sometimes it becomes a little unmanageable, but in spurts. So I think being able to make an achievable schedule, one that I know I can accomplish.
I feel a little more tired than usual, ... Ive had to recover from everything, my illnesses and things this summer. Its not perfect circumstances, but Im definitely going to be out there and hopefully have my letdown after the Open ... I think Ill go in mentally a lot better. When it comes down to it I dont think anyone really wants to play me because I have a lot of weapons and not a ton of weaknesses. My main weakness would probably be an occasional self-destruction mode. So Ill try not to touch that red button accidentally.
I think that Billie (Jean King) and Zina (Garrison), they have a whole lot of experience. Even if I don't quite agree with something or have a different way of doing it this week, whatever they said, I did it right away and I found out that it was correct. I think that's helped a lot...I'm having fun. I had a lot of fun out there. Sometimes I was ready to smile -- but I knew I'd lose focus -- because I was doing things that I'd done in practice and we talked about. I was ready to laugh and give someone a high-five, but it wasn't time for that.