“It is part of a follow-my-leader game of second-best we have all been playing . . . it isn't a very good game; the people you play it with are apt to get hurt.”

“this is life and all there is of life; to play the game, to play the cards we get; play them uncomplainingly and play them to the end. the playing of the game is the foregetting of self and play it bravely to the end”

“Life isn't fair, so you have to play the best game you can with the cards you're dealt.”

“About winning and losing: It isn't important, what really counts is how you play the game. About playing the game: PLAY TO WIN!”

“Drugs is a government game, Bilal. A way to rob us of our best black men, our army. Everyone who plays the game loses. Then they get you right back where we started, in slavery! Then they get to say "This time you did it to yourself." I won't play that game.”

“I realized then that it was a game we were playing; from the very beginning. But we weren’t playing the same game and when it came down to it, he wasn’t playing by the rules.”