Althea Gibson

Being champion is all well and good, but you can't eat a crown.

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

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'm so hands-on, from the color of my tour bus to what I eat for dinner at 5 or the way the lights are hung.

I love North Carolina.

If anyone looks back to the '70s, '80s with nostalgic rosy colored glasses and goes, 'Well, everything was awesome.' No, everything was not awesome!