Give me good books, good conversations, and my Trek Y-Foil, and I shall want for nothing else.

- George Plimpton

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

- George Plimpton

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

- George Plimpton

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 do…

- George Plimpton

Art has something to do with the arrest of attention in the midst of distraction.

- George Plimpton

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.

- George Plimpton

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

- George Plimpton

I never understood people who don't have bookshelves.

- George Plimpton

It is also one of the pleasures of oral biography, in that the reader, rather than editor, is jury.

- George Plimpton