35 Quotes by George Plimpton

As happens with people who love a thing too much, it destroys them. Oscar Wilde said, ‘You destroy the thing that you love.’ It’s the other way around. What you love destroys you.

It’s like people always say, Well, does sport teach you anything in life? It teaches you certain things, but it doesn’t teach you other things. It doesn’t teach, as I say, very much about marriage, very much about how to make a living, any of those things.

I remember being awed by it – the uniqueness and nicety of style – and I suspect I was a bit jealous because we were more or less of the same generation.

My favorite monologue in the book is Kate Harrington’s story of her relationship with Truman.

Well, I have to write. A lot of people forget that. They think I’m sort of crazy baffoon who can’t make up his mind what to do in life.

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

You do not cut a check in the state of Kansas to John Doe, executioner. The executioner is paid in cash so there’s no trail to him.

I have never been convinced there’s anything inherently wrong in having fun.