Quote

When you oppress people either by gender, by race, by sexual orientation, when you do that and the doors become ajar, they will fly open and they will come and they have.

Billie Jean King

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Billie Jean King
Age: 80
Born: 1943
Born: November 22
Sports Commentator
Tennis Coach
Tennis Player
Long Beach
California
Billie Jean Moffitt
People
Sexual
Gender
Doors
Either
Open
Race
Ajar
Become
Oppress
Come
Orientation

More quotes by Billie Jean King

Image
It's really impossible for athletes to grow up. On the one hand, you're still a child, still playing a game. But on the other hand, you're a superhuman hero that everyone dreams of being. No wonder we have such a hard time understanding who we are.
Billie Jean King
Image
I would just never out anybody. I think everyone has to find it in their own way and their own time.
Billie Jean King
Image
I always think it's best to pretend you're in a tenuous position. Just as a player, you always want to stay in the now and work hard but also have goals for the future. There's no promises in any entrepreneurial business. You have to really work hard every year and also try to envision where you want to go in the future at the same time.
Billie Jean King
Image
I think self-awareness is probably the most important thing towards being a champion.
Billie Jean King
Image
I have often been asked whether I am a women or an athlete. The question is absurd. Men are not asked that. I am an athlete. I am a women.
Billie Jean King
Image
Winning comes down to who can execute under pressure.
Billie Jean King
Image
Any therapist will tell you that when you're ready, you will come out. To be outed means you weren't ready.
Billie Jean King
Image
As far as U.S. tennis, we need new stars coming up in the pipeline, but I don't know if we have it.
Billie Jean King
Image
At 62 you want to keep moving that's important.
Billie Jean King
Image
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.
Billie Jean King
Image
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.
Billie Jean King
Image
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.
Billie Jean King
Image
The trouble with being number one in the world - in anything- is that it takes a certain mentality to attain that position, and that is something of a driving, perfectionist attitude, so that once you do achieve number one, you don't relax and enjoy it.
Billie Jean King
Image
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.
Billie Jean King
Image
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
Image
Tennis taught me so many lessons in life. One of the things it taught me is that every ball that comes to me, I have to make a decision. I have to accept responsibility for the consequences every time I hit a ball.
Billie Jean King
Image
Reputation is what others think about you. What's far more important is character, because that is what you think about yourself.
Billie Jean King
Image
I feel that tennis is an art form that is capable of moving the players and the audience - at least a knowledgeable audience-in almost sensual ways. When I'm performing at my absolute best, I think that some of the euphoria I feel must be transmitted to the audience.
Billie Jean King
Image
Women get the attention when we get into the men's arena, and that's sad.
Billie Jean King
Image
Champions take responsibility.
Billie Jean King