“It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me.”

“What a childhood I had. Once on my birthday my ol' man gave me a bat. The first day I played with it, it flew away.”

“It’s my birthday, Horus insisted. Wish me happy birthday!
“Happy birthday!” I yelled. “Now shut up!”

“A wizard am I, whom many dread,
With power like a God.
So come with me to yonder bed,
And see my mighty rod.”

“I called my mother up when they announced the Nobel Prize, waiting until 7 in the morning. She said, “That’s nice — and when are you going to see me next?””

“That afternoon my mother had brought me the roses.
"Save them for my funeral," I'd said.”

“When my turn comes I propose to take my lethal capsule comfortably in bed at home and preferably on my own.”

“I still can’t believe [ Muhammad Ali ] knows my name. It astounds me he knows who I am. I first met Ali in 1976. I was locked up in a juvenile home and he came to visit. I’ve never forgotten it.”

“I hope to die in my sleep, when the time comes, and I hope it will be in the beautiful big brass bed in my New Orleans apartment, the bed which is associated with so much love.”

“I see you're trying to distract me from the real point here," Magnus said instead. "You had a birthday - a perfect excuse for me to throw one of my famous parties - and you didn't even tell me about it?”