Quotes by George Plimpton

“The smaller the ball used in the sport, the better the book.”

“They did not specify that I had to run the race from the beginning, ... about a block and a half from the finish - and I entered it immediately behind the fellow who was leading the race. He looked over his shoulder and there I was, fresh as a daisy. This poor man put on a desperate sprint, which is quite a feat if youve run 26 miles, and he managed to cross the finish line before I did, which gives you some sense of my speed.”

“I was told just today that 60,000 or 70,000 people listen to this (Audible.com site), which on personal computers strikes me as an extraordinary number, ... Maybe with this Pet Peeves book, itll be 150,000.”

“Writing is a very lonely business and when you come to a book fair and you sit at a table and people come up to you with books that theyve had in their library for many years and they think its been somewhat enhanced by a signature, its always a pleasure.”

I have never been convinced theres anything inherently wrong in having fun.

The pleasure of sport was so often the chance to indulge the cessation of time itself--the pitcher dawdling on the mound, the skier poised at the top of a mountain trail, the basketball player with the rough skin of the ball against his palm preparing for a foul shot, the tennis player at set point over his opponent--all of them savoring a moment before committing themselves to action.

He still has the same way of calling to me, as if Im still new to him, as if he has yet to get over me.