My father was a deeply sentimental man. And like all sentimental men, he was also very cruel.

Eschew the monumental. Shun the Epic. All the guys who can paint great big pictures can paint great small ones.

What is moral is what you feel good after.

My writing is nothing, my boxing is everything.

No subject is terrible if the story is true, if the prose is clean and honest, and if it affirms courage and grace under pressure.

Yes, they have more money.

He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor of his wife. He only dreamed of places now and the lions on the beach. They played like young cats in the dusk and he loved them as he loved the boy. He never dreamed about the boy. He simply woke, looked out the open door at the moon and unrolled his trousers and put them on.