"She didn't even finish her last sentence; it just trailed off. I think the subject had changed in her head while her mouth had continued on the old topic, not realizing it was out of supplies."

"...teaching is, after all, a form of show business."

"He never complicates a desire by overthinking it, unlike Mirabelle, who spins a cocoon around an idea until it is immobile."

"An apology? Bah! Disgusting! Cowardly! Beneath the dignity of any gentleman, however wrong he might be."

"The overhead lights reflect in the glass countertop and mingle in the gray and black of the gloves, resulting in a mother-of-pearl swirl that sometimes sends Mirabelle into a shallow hypnotic dream."

"She started converting objects of beauty into objects of value."

"She has simply never quite learned to walk or hold herself comfortably"

"I am tired, so very tired of thinking about Lacey Yeager, yet I worry that unless I write her story down, and see it bound and tidy on my bookshelf, I will be unable to ever write about anything else."

"Comedy is a distortion of what is happening, and there will always be something happening."

"Thinking too much also creates the illusion of causal connections between unrelated events."

"The auction houses seemed not as dull as their financial counterparts on Wall Street, where parents of daughters imagined glass celings and bottom patting."

"A triangle with four points is what Euclid rides into hell."

"He knows only what is right in front of him; she is aware of every incoming sensation that glances obliquely against her soft, fragile core"

"Harder you Try, Luckier you get"

"They told me to just "act like myself." When I said, "How do I do that?" they said to just have fun with it, but I'm not sure what they meant."

"It's so beautiful where I am today that it makes me wonder where I am."

"Finally, we do become wise, but then it's too late"

"The dictionary is a perfect example of overalphabetization, with its harsh rules and every little word neatly in place. It almost makes me want to go on a diet of grapes and waste away to nothing."

"Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth"

"In America, we’re really good at blowing things up but not so good in knowing where the pieces will land."

"Man is not mean to be humble, he's meant to be humbled."

"Everyone that you fight is not your enemy and everyone who helps you is not your friend."

"Everybody thinks this is a tough man’s sport. This is not a tough man’s sport. This is a thinking man’s sport. A tough man is gonna get hurt real bad in this sport."

"A man who was friendly with everyone was an enemy to himself."

"I'm in trouble because I'm normal and slightly arrogant. A lot of people don't like themselves and I happen to be totally in love with myself."

"As long as we persevere and endure, we can get anything we want."

"My style was impetuous, my defenses were impregnable, and I was ferocious."

"I'm not Mother Teresa, but I'm not Charles Manson, either."

"It's good to know how to read, but it's dangerous to know how to read and not how to interpret what you're reading."

"Man is not meant to be humble, he’s meant to be humbled."

"Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face."

"God is not going to send someone to hell for my mistakes. So God and I have to deal with my own salvation."

"Another thing that freaks me out is time. Time is like a book. You have a beginning, a middle and an end. It's just a cycle."

"I just look around and say, I'm a mess. I don't know why I do things."

"I don't react to a tragic happening any more. I took so many bad things as a kid and some people think I don't care about anything. It's just too hard for me to get emotional. I can't cry no more."

"When Jesus comes back, these crazy, greedy, capitalistic men are gonna kill him again."

"Some people try to get you out of slavery for you to be their slave."

"You can't stay married in a situation where you are afraid to go to sleep in case your wife might cut your throat."

"Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth."

"It's good to know how to read, but it's dangerous to know how to read and not how to interpret what you're reading"

"I can inspire people on how to use money, how to get economically powerful."

"Mr. Arthur Ashe, he was good. I read some of his books. He knew about everything, but he was real quiet and didn't talk much. I never met him."

"Our money is bait money, and bait money is not to be used."

"I feel bad about my outlook, how I feel about people and society, and that I'll never be part of society the way I should."

"One day some guy is going to get a billion-dollar fight."

"I'll go back and take what the people owe me."

"That's what people respect, the fact that I wasn't a chump that laid on his back and gave up."

"Every time there's a revolution, it comes from somebody reading a book about revolution. David Walker wrote a book and Nat Turner did his thing."

"I'm a historian, and that freaks me out."

"I have the same malice in my heart as far as the fight game is concerned, but outside the ring, I won't say anything a dignified man won't say."