“A good read is like thanksgiving dinner. Some come to stuff their faces and leave fat and happy. Others come to critique everything from the turkey to the place settings. And those special few come to see how its done and hope for the chance to one day make their own. So that others can get fat and happy.”

“Is mine fat!”

“You've had five years to make her happy, Collins. Now back the hell off and I'll show you how a real man gets it done.”

“If you've been fat, you will always feel and see the world as a fat person; you know how difficult it is... It's the same coming from a working-class background... it never leaves you.”

“You don't have to disrespect and insult others simply to hold your own ground. If you do, that shows how shaky your own position is.”

“Katherine Mary, we're going to know each other very wel, for many years, I hope. You'll see, you'll come to understand. These big things, these terrible things, are not important ones. If they were, how could one go on living? No, it is the small, little things that make up a day, that bring fullness and happiness to a life. Your sergeant coming home, a good dinner, your little Mary laughing, the smell of the woods- oh, so many things, you know them yourself.”

“Ninety feet between bases is perhaps as close as man has ever come to perfection.”