“He had won but he didn't feel like a winner.”

“But coming close wasn't the same as winning, was it? ... He had won because winners won and everyone else just went home”

“You don't feel like a winner and then do; you do like a winner and then feel.”

“In a way, Nick had been right: We all got to be winners sometimes. But what he didn't understand was that we all had to be losers, too. Because you can't have one without the other.”

“He let you have the pants anyway?" she asked. I had started talking about Maxon as soon as I could, eager to know how their conversation had gone."Yeah. He was very generous about it all.""I think it's charming that he's a good winner.""He is a good winner. He's even gracious when he's gotten the raw end of things." Like a knee to the royal jewels, for example.”

“Henry went down on one knee. 'Like King Arthur's knights,' Mr. Fogarty had told him, but he didn't feel much like a knight. In fact he felt like a twit.”