"There had been times when he knew, somewhere in him, that he would get used to it, whatever it was, because he had le…"

"Single mothers — bright, attractive, available women, thousands of them all over London — they were the best inventio…"

"Self-pity is an ignoble emotion, but we all feel it, and the orthodox critical line that it represents some kind of a…"

"I fell in love with football as I was later to fall in love with women: suddenly, inexplicably, uncritically, giving …"

"By the early seventies I had become an Englishman — that is to say, I hated England just as much as half my compatrio…"

"As I get older, the tyranny that football exerts over my life, and therefore over the lives of the people around me, …"

"Where's the superficial? I was, and therefore am, dim, gloomy, a drag, unfashionable, unfanciable, and awkward. This …"

"I’ve been thinking with my guts since I was fourteen years old, and, frankly, I think my guts have shit for brains."

"Then I lost it. Kinda lost it all, you know. Faith, dignity, about fifteen pounds."

"Each day was a bad day, but he survived by kidding himself that each day was somehow unconnected to the day before."