My top three were Jim Brown, Wilt Chamberlain and Bo Jackson.

Also, I am driven by a wonderful muse called alimony.

It's kind of ironic that the two sports with the greatest characters, boxing and horse racing, have both been on the decline. In both cases it's for the lack of a suitable hero.

Cliches and adjectives permeated my prose.

I came up with new leads for game stories by being observant and clever, by using the many gifts of the English language to intrigue and hook a reader.

If I got paid, it was no more than five dollars a column, and I still think I was overpaid.

Some people who love boxing might love Mike Tyson, but people outside of the sport are generally repulsed by him and therefore, repulsed by the sport.

Sugar Ray Robinson was at the top of the boxing world during the 1950's when it seemed that he would either win or lose the championship about every three or four months.

All of journalism is a shrinking art. So much of it is hype. The O.J. Simpson story is a landmark in the decline of journalism.

I think on balance, Don King has been bad for boxing. I think he's done some very good things and I think he did a heck of a job of promoting Ali but I think I could have promoted Ali.

Sugar Ray and talked about doing some articles together or writing a book together but dealing with Sugar Ray was a lot like fighting him. He would fake you in and then he'd drop you.

Neuroanatomy, political history, and introspection all offer evidence that human beings are quite capable of resisting the urge to surrender to every impulse of reptilian core of brain.

I'm a firm believer in learning by heart.

My mom had this romantic notion of her children playing classical music. The idea is you learn it when you're still learning language. It's using the same part of the brain.

If I've learned nothing else, it's that time and practice equal achievement.

The government is shutting down the coal industry, they say it's cheaper to draw nuclear power off the French grid and cheaper to buy coal from Colombia.

I think the socialist movement, by removing many, many people from grinding stagnation and poverty and overwork, does enable people not just to lead better lives but to be better people.

Then, much later, my next dream was to become an astronaut, and I was fortunate to realize that dream, also.

Pay off your debt first. Freedom from debt is worth more than any amount you can earn.

Putting women in military combat is the cutting edge of the feminist goal to force us into an androgynous society.

I became interested in genocide, because it happened so many times. It happened to the Armenians and after the Armenians, Hitler took action.