If I have a daughter and she plays tennis, and I have a son who plays tennis, I wouldn't say that my son deserves more money because he's a man. I would say they deserve the same amount of money.
I just hate to lose. When I am on the court, it is like my life depends on it.
Legendary? I don't know. I'm just Serena.
You can't underestimate anyone.
I'm a high-performance athlete: I'm running, I'm sprinting, I'm sliding, I'm doing pretty much everything and the last thing I want to worry about is my chest. I want to just worry about playing the sport at the highest level that I can.
I'm an athlete and I'm black, and a lot of black athletes go broke. I do not want to become a statistic, so maybe I overcompensate. But I'm paranoid. Oprah told me a long time ago, 'You sign every check. Never let anyone sign any checks.'
I'm a perfectionist. I'm pretty much insatiable. I feel there's so many things I can improve on.
I went on the courts with just a ball and a racket and a hope...and that's all I had.
I always say if I play my best it's difficult to beat me
I love who I am, and I encourage other people to love and embrace who they are. But it definitely wasn't easy - it took me a while.
I just never give up. I fight to the end. You can't go out and say, 'I want a bag of never-say-die spirit.' It's not for sale. It has to be innate.
Will I have to explain to my daughter that her brother is gonna make more money doing the exact same job because he's a man? If they both played sports since they were three years old, they both worked just as hard, but because he's a boy, they're gonna give him more money? Like, how am I gonna explain that to her? In tennis we've had great pioneers that paved the way - including Venus [Williams], who fought so hard for Wimbledon to pay women the same prize money they pay men, and Billie Jean King, who is one of the main reasons Title IX exists.
I am not a robot. I have a heart and I bleed.
If you can keep playing tennis when somebody is shooting a gun down the street, that's concentration.
You can be whatever size you are, and you can be beautiful both inside and out. We're always told what's beautiful and what's not, and that's not right.
I've had to learn to fight all my life - got to learn to keep smiling. If you smile things will work out.
My smile is my favorite part of my body. I think a smile can make your whole body.
I think I can improve a lot. I think I can get a lot better. I feel like there's much, much more I can do.
I've always been a fighter and I've always fought through things my whole life.
I decided I can't pay a person to rewind time, so I may as well get over it.
I never left my roots. You can identify me as someone that didn't become high and mighty. Humility is a defining [trait] all of us can forever learn, and I try to be as humble as anyone can be.
Luck has nothing to do with it.
It's remarkable she [Venus Williams] plays at all, given her Sjögren's syndrome [an autoimmune disorder that can cause joint pain]. She's back, winning tournaments. She didn't allow society to tell her, "You have this disease; you can't do that anymore." I look at her, like, "She's not playing at 100 percent. You are. You don't have excuses." Knowing what she went through helped me try to be a more positive person.
I don't go thinking I'm going to lose. I never go into a tournament thinking that. I'll do the best that I can.
I love "Phenomenal Woman." The experiences she had of being African American in the U.S. - that itself is a task. I appreciate the hardships Maya Angelou went through for our generation. I'm super influenced by the black people that paved the way for us.
