“Basketball still is the most democratic of all sports — it belongs to the streets and the poor. The only essentials are a hoop, a ball, a pair of sneakers, and another kid who can go 'one on one' with you. And it was these kids that made the evening so beautiful.”

“What ‘The Godfather’ is trying to peddle us is that turning to crime was not a choice but a necessary absorption in order to get along in a hostile country. Thus it is an ode to impotence and a grave insult to the Italians”

"Why the recent alliance between Nixon and the workers? lt is a wedding of his pomposity and, sadly, their circumstances. The key word is 'majority.' If you came out of a working-class family, you always wanted to belong."

"By playing majestic ball and with some front office high­handedness, this Yankees team resembles the pin-striped aristocracy of old"

“Mailer said at one point that it was necessary to forge a ‘hip coalition of the right and the left’ ”

‘I have lived as Irish-American for 35 years. I have endured it, and it is too late in the march for me to believe we are going to become champions of humanity.’