I want to be able to win matches where I'm not playing my best, play players who are playing great, be able to come through, i need to be tested, I guess. Sounds scripted. Actually, I'd rather not be tested in every match. But that doesn't happen, so it's important for me to have those, like, really rough, rowdy matches. That helps a lot.

Serena Williams

Categorized in : Top News

If you can keep playing tennis when somebody is shooting a gun down the street, that's concentration.

Serena Williams

tennis focus gun

I've always been a fighter and I've always fought through things my whole life.

Serena Williams

whole-life fighter whole

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.

Serena Williams

bags giving-up fighting

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.

Serena Williams

size beautiful

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.

Serena Williams

badass who-i-am people

Nothing comes to a sleeper but a dream.

Serena Williams

sleepers dream

I went on the courts with just a ball and a racket and a hope...and that's all I had.

Serena Williams

racket court balls

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.'

Serena Williams

black athlete long

I've had to learn to fight all my life - got to learn to keep smiling. If you smile things will work out.

Serena Williams

smile work-out fighting

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.

Serena Williams

humility humble roots

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.

Serena Williams

i-can feels thinking

I'm a perfectionist. I'm pretty much insatiable. I feel there's so many things I can improve on.

Serena Williams

motivational-sports tennis perfection

If I'm winning, I have to act like I'm not bored. If it's A tough match, I have to act like I'm having A good time. I'm a drama queen.

Serena Williams

queens winning drama

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.

Serena Williams

our-generation appreciate people

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.

Serena Williams

athlete running sports

My smile is my favorite part of my body. I think a smile can make your whole body.

Serena Williams

body acceptance thinking

I always say if I play my best it's difficult to beat me

Serena Williams

difficult beats play

Legendary? I don't know. I'm just Serena.

Serena Williams

legendary knows

I am not a robot. I have a heart and I bleed.

Serena Williams

robots heart

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.

Serena Williams

daughter men son