“When you read the book you see that these guys aren’t holding any punches. They’re straightforward. They’re honest. They’re giving you their honest opinion.”

The meek may inherit the earth, but they wont get the ball from me.

If I weren’t earning $3 million a year to dunk a basketball, most people on the street would run in the other direction if they saw me coming.

But when I see a story on welfare on television, they only show black people.

I don’t hate anyone, at least not for more than 48 minutes, barring overtime.

He’ll never be Jordan. This clearly takes him out of the conversation. He can win as much as he wants to.

I like to help poor people who got no chance. If rich people don’t, who will? Not other poor people, that’s for sure.

I’m just what America needs: another unemployed black man.

There’s only 5 real jobs in the world. Teacher, fireman, policeman, doctor and somebody who is in the armed service. If you don’t have one of those 5 jobs, you shouldn’t take your life that serious.

If all babies are so cute, how the hell do we have so many ugly people in the world?

I think you have an obligation to be honest.

You know what I always say about basketball whenever anybody tried to tell me the Knicks are gonna be good: They’re old. Old people don’t get healthy. They die.

You can’t start a diet in the middle of the week, that’s just stupid.

I remember sitting down with the Rockets and saying, ‘Yeah. I’m going to retire.’ They said, ‘Well, we’ll give you $9 million.’ And I said, ‘You got a pen on you?’

If you’re scarde to fail, you don’t deserve to be successful.

People always say turn the other cheek. If you turn the other cheek, I’m gonna hit you in the other cheek too.

These are my new shoes. They’re good shoes. They won’t make you rich like me, they won’t make you rebound like me, they definitely won’t make you handsome like me. They’ll only make you have shoes like me. That’s it.

Leisure without books is death, and burial of a man alive.

Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge.

The lack of power to take joy in outdoor nature is as real a misfortune as the lack of power to take joy in books.

What an astonishing thing a book is.

There are three things that grow more precious with age; old wood to burn, old books to read, and old friends to enjoy.

We would be together and have our books and at night be warm in bed together with the windows open and the stars bright.

You can write a book on how to ruin someone’s perfect day.

People don’t realize how a man’s whole life can be changed by one book.