Norman Apple > Norman's Quotes

“At the heart of all romanticism is suffering”
― Brin-Jonathan Butler

“Teófilo Stevenson”
― Brin-Jonathan Butler, The Domino Diaries: My Decade Boxing with Olympic Champions and Chasing Hemingway's Ghost in the Last Days of Castro's Cuba

“Cuban eyes often look close to tears. Tears never seem far away because both their pain and their joy are always so close to the surface.”
― Brin-Jonathan Butler, The Domino Diaries: My Decade Boxing with Olympic Champions and Chasing Hemingway's Ghost in the Last Days of Castro's Cuba

“All boxers are liars. Con men. The better the liar, the better the fighter. That’s because if you knew what was in a fighter’s heart, if you knew what he was really thinking, he’d be easier to find. And if you could find him, he’d be easier to hit. And if you could hit him, you might expose him. And that might expose every person they never stood up to and every person they never stood up for. A single blow can unveil the watermark of your soul in a way nothing else ever can.”
― Brin-Jonathan Butler

“Mayweather was already a gargoyle for our era, a gleaming hood ornament on a demented limo running one red light after another, America’s id.”
― Brin-Jonathan Butler

“Las Vegas, the most expensive toilet in the world that still can’t flush.”
― Brin-Jonathan Butler

“Those who are unfamiliar with history are condemned to repeat it? My version is, those who are unfamiliar with history are condemned to repeat it without a sense of ironic futility.”
― Brin-Jonathan Butler, Errol Morris: The Kindle Singles Interview

“While guidebooks might tell you that time collapsed here, another theory says that in Latin America, all of history coexists at once.”
― Brin-Jonathan Butler, The Domino Diaries: My Decade Boxing with Olympic Champions and Chasing Hemingway's Ghost in the Last Days of Castro's Cuba

“Sometimes we’re so desperate for greatness and what we believe greatness can give us in return that we bypass people’s generosity. We’re not generous to people. We’re not caring to people. Instead, we’re so selfish to grasp success because we believe our lives will be better once we succeed. But once you do become successful, that rarely happens.”
― Brin-Jonathan Butler, Mike Tyson: The Kindle Singles Interview

“If you want to chase a runaway ambulance toward what’s left of the American Dream, Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao show you that, still, somehow, boxing remains the yellow brick road in our country.”
― Brin-Jonathan Butler