“There will be plenty of other problems in the future. This is as good a time as any to get ahead of them.”

“You'll never get ahead by blaming your problems on other people.”

“The day felt almost like any other day of the summer, like they'd rewound and summer was still ahead of them. But this time, from the start, there would be no question of whether they had each other or not.This time, they would know.”

“There are plenty of ways to get ahead. The first is so basic I'm almost embarrassed to say it: spend less than you earn”

“Our business in life is not to get ahead of other people, but to get ahead of ourselves.”

“I look around briefly at the other players like I always do before a game. Other than Queenie, Bill, and Talon, I don’t know any of them (and I don’t care enough about them to know them). But if there’s going to be any cordiality, any forced politeness or ‘Aw, shucks, let’s all just try to have a good time here tonight’ kind of blather, then now’s the time to get it out of the way before I get down to the business of screwing everyone out of their hopes and dreams.”