“He still has the same way of calling to me, as if I'm still new to him, as if he has yet to get over me.”

“The pleasure of sport was so often the chance to indulge the cessation of time itself--the pitcher dawdling on the mound, the skier poised at the top of a mountain trail, the basketball player with the rough skin of the ball against his palm preparing for a foul shot, the tennis player at set point over his opponent--all of them savoring a moment before committing themselves to action.”

“I never understood people who don't have bookshelves.”

“I have never been convinced there's anything inherently wrong in having fun. ”

“As happens with people who love a thing too much, it destroys them.Oscar Wilde said, 'You destroy the thing that you love.' It's the other way around. What you love destroys you.”

“...and so it was that my wealth came to be measured in books”

“Don't talk to me about aesthetics or tradition. Talk to me about what sells and what's good right now. And what the American people like is to think the underdog still has a chance.”