I think my mistakes were kind of common – leaning on cliches and adjectives in the place of clear, vivid writing. But at least I knew how to spell, which seems to be a rarity...

There is never going to be another Ali.

I always thought of him as a stoic, solid person, that I think was typical of that era of the 1950s, … People came out of the war years with great hope and great faith...

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...

Today, it’s money. There’s no question about that. Unless you endorse a grill that cooks hamburgers and steaks, where else can you make the kind of money that you can make in the ring if...

I also love the controversy of it. Even if I didn’t think he should be up that high, I like the controversy it created.

I worked with Rocky Graziano and Rocky was certainly a character.

You need heroes like that for a sport to surge the way basketball did with Michael Jordan. Now he’s gone and that sport is having problems.

I think I dozed off before the kickoff, but I woke in time to watch Scott make his [two] interceptions. I wasn’t alert enough to watch Manny Fernandez make his [17] tackles.

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

I think anybody is entitled to vote for whomever they want, and I think Secretariat does qualify as an athlete,

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.

In fifty years of covering the sport, of course Muhammad Ali is by far the dominant figure.

I did not choose necessarily on the basis of significance, … If you have a vote for the most significant athlete, then you have Ali, then you have Babe Ruth, then you have Michael Jordan....

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.

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

Cliches and adjectives permeated my prose.

My writing improved the more I wrote – and the more I read good writing, from Shakespeare on down.

I just can’t believe all the things I did that decade,

He’s in it for Don King and that’s understandable because that’s why people go into business. He’s just kind of slippery about it.

Sportswriters have changed more than sportswriting.

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 began learning the sportswriting business very early in life.

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.

The best thing, … was that my subject was accessible, which wasn’t always true with the other people I worked with. Secondly, I didn’t have to split the money with him. He did it gratis,...

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.

Sugar Ray Leonard was as close as anyone came after Ali to being Ali, but he wasn’t Ali.

It was the opportunity, … to work with Tom Wolfe and Breslin and Red Smith. If you’re a journalist, that’s who you want to be with. (Legendary theater critic) Walter Kerr used to use my...

I got to know Sugar Ray but I certainly would not say we were good friends.

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.

I think it’s a labor of love for everybody who was involved with it,