I love seeing people be successful! I love that. It's wonderful. There's enough room for everybody.
— Venus Williams
I always thought of it like, 'What can my body do for me?' and not, 'How do I look?'
When I play my match, I can't think about anything else except what I'm doing on my side of the net.
When you start playing tennis, you don't imagine there's a whole bureaucracy behind the tournaments and all of that. You just think about winning the cups.
I was a teenager with braces and into sporty dresses with bright colors and cut-outs. For awhile, I really experimented with what I wanted to do. Some really extreme things, I recall.
Equality for men and women, across the world, not only in sports, is the goal. We obviously have a long way to go, but every little bit helps.
For me, being part of the WTA tour is a privilege. Every day I wake up, it's a privilege to be able to go outside and do what I love. It's a privilege to be able to make my own hours, even though they're long, but I make them.
I don't have time for easy. Tennis is just hard.
One thing I've done is surround myself with people who are as good as me or better.
Tennis has been around for so long - women have been playing the majors since the 1800s. Other sports have not had professional leagues for women for as long.
I don't snack a lot, because I didn't grow up snacking.
I think there's a connection with what you wear. If you don't feel good about what you're wearing, you aren't going to feel confident, and you aren't going to be able to concentrate.
The first time you win, nobody picks you; the last time you win, nobody picks you. You've just got to pick yourself.
Like anyone else, I enjoy my days off.
I love design.
I contribute my best in my sport and I also have a ton of respect for myself and my family.
I'm always on the court with my dad.
I want my opponents to look at me across the net and just not want to play me because I look so fit and amazing and strong. So that's always my goal.
I've always been happy with my body.
I always eat a huge breakfast on match days even though my stomach hates it.
The message I like to convey to women and girls across the globe is that there is no glass ceiling.
When you are in the public eye, you have to protect yourself. There are so many people judging you. I just try to be myself.
My mom didn't want us to go to the candy house, she didn't want us to go to the ice cream truck, she didn't want us to go to the... There was actually a donut truck, if that makes sense.
I try to invest smart. I'm not a baller. I'm not a blinger.
Retiring is the easy way out.
I've gone to school for business, for design, for architecture.
I think women athletes who have been successful need to help other sports, those sports that are just emerging. That's what I've been thinking about and looking forward to.
Sometimes women who are taller aren't comfortable with it, but I love being tall.
If I have to work hard or think hard or just copy somebody else that's doing it better - whatever it takes, I'm going to find that solution. That's the drive that keeps me going.
You've got to live in the moment. When it's over, it's over.
My motto has always been that you can't say, 'Oh, it won't happen to me.' You have to say, 'That can happen to me.' So always be aware that things can happen.
You have to stay on top and learn from mistakes.
The day I'm not improving will be the day I hang up the racket.
The thing is, it's not good anyway for eight-year-olds to be out there playing tennis tournaments so soon in their lives. But when I did get to play in a tournament, when I was nine, I was overjoyed.
Of course I want to look well and fit - and as an athlete, I want to look strong.
Sometimes when you're making more errors you want to pull back, but I just need to keep going forward.
I like to be busy. It's not always easy because the schedule gets busy; especially, the more successful you are, the more demands you have. But it's definitely worth the sacrifice.
I believe that athletes - especially female athletes in the world's leading sport for women - should serve as role models.
Sports are a great place to show that equality can happen.
Growing up, I'd just be at home, playing tennis, spending my allowance on an ice-cream truck.
I love playing the game. I always have. Of course, winning matches makes it much sweeter. The wins and the losses always lead to these big moments, unless you're Serena Williams.
I'm a collaborator. I know I don't know everything. I don't want to know everything.
I've been very focused on my career outside of tennis.
A lot of times, I don't just do juice; I do the whole thing blended to keep the fiber.
If I don't go to the gym for a week, I just get thinner and thinner.
I don't think anyone feels older. You have this infinity inside you that feels like it could go on forever.
It's such an honor to do this job because I love it. And I get to work outside, and what can beat that?
I think nowadays it's so easy as an athlete to become a statistic whether or not you lose everything or having trouble or whatever it may be.
You can never get complacent because a loss is always around the corner.
The thing about tennis is if you stay off for two weeks, or just for three days, you can lose your rhythm quickly. So it's just a question of constant diligence and vigilance.
