From 143rd Street in Harlem to the center court at Wimbledon is about as far as one can travel.

I don't want to be put on a pedestal. I just want to be reasonably successful and live a normal life with all the conveniences to make it so.

I hope that I have accomplished just one thing: that I have been a credit to tennis and my country.

No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helped you.

In the field of sports you are more or less accepted for what you do rather than what you are.

I always wanted to be somebody...If I've made it, it's half because I was game to take a wicked amount of punishment along the way, and half because there were an awful lot of people who cared enough to help me.

I think I've already got the main thing I've always wanted, which is to be somebody, to have an identify. I'm Althea Gibson, the tennis champion. I hope it makes me happy.