In the 1950s, when I was hanging around Sullivan's Gym and the Gramercy Gym, there were fixed fights. Mob guys like Frankie Carbo and Blinky Palermo had taken over the sport; one lightweight champion loaned his title to others at least twice; the welterweight division was a slag heap.

Journalism is a team sport. Writing novels is golf: it's you and the ball.

I don't buy into you're on the slag heap when you're 40 or 50 or 60 or 70 or whatever.

In the '70s, the newspaper guild managed to get people paid what they were worth, but the reporters suddenly became middle class. It's much more respectable, more uptight, and everyone speaks in guarded tones. And the writing isn't as good. We always had guys who were failed poets and failed novelists who did it to eat.

In 1999, I got fired as coach of New England. In three years in New England, we actually did better than most people think. We were 27-21, won the AFC division title, went to the playoffs twice.

What would Chaucer have written about if men were perfect?