„This, we have to say it, remember this is just a football game, no matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy, confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City: John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York City, the most famous, perhaps, of all of The Beatles, shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead … on … arrival. Hard to go back to the game after that newsflash, which in duty bound, we had to take.“

„The faces in New York remind me of people who had played a game and lost.“

—  Murray Kempton American journalist 1917 - 1997

„It was reported that the New York Knicks have won all 12 of the home games attended by magician David Blaine. A spokesman for the Knicks said, 'if this is what it takes to win, it's not worth it.“

—  Tina Fey American comedian, writer, producer and actress 1970

citation needed

„I don't get it: they re-package the same shitty football games every year, update a few stats, call it a new game and millions of suckers keep buying them. What's the point? Why not just go outside and play real football instead? Or even better yet, get bent. Nobody likes football.“

—  Maddox American internet writer 1978

Ikaruga kicks ass http://maddox.xmission.com/c.cgi?u=ikaruga
The Best Page in the Universe

„I can remember a game, we were down with about 5 to 10 points, I go off about 25 points, we come back and win the game, we're walking off the floor. Tex (Winter) looks at me and says "There's no "I" in team!" I looked at Tex and say, "There's not, but there's an 'I' in win!"“

—  Michael Jordan American retired professional basketball player and businessman 1963

Hall of Fame induction address, 2009 http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2009/sep/12/nation/chi-12-michael-jordan-bulls-sep12

„That's what learning is, after all; not whether we lose the game, but how we lose and how we've changed because of it and what we take away from it that we never had before, to apply to other games. Losing, in a curious way, is winning.“

—  Richard Bach American spiritual writer 1936

Source: The Bridge Across Forever (1984), Ch. 15
Source: The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story

„Football is now all about money. There are problems with the values within the game. And this is sad because football is the most beautiful game. We can play it in the street. We can play it everywhere. Everyone can play it but those values are being lost. We have to bring them back.“

—  Johan Cruyff Dutch association football player 1947 - 2016

In an interview with The Guardian's Donald McRae in September 2014 https://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/sep/12/johan-cruyff-louis-van-gaal-manchester-united.

„I never had intimate friends, and the few who came close are in New York. By which I mean they're dead, because that's where I suppose condemned souls go in order not to endure the truth of their past lives.“

—  Gabriel García Márquez, book Memories of My Melancholy Whores

Source: Memories of My Melancholy Whores

„Winning the Games will make you famous, losing will mean death.“

—  Suzanne Collins American television writer and novelist 1962

„Jackie, what is the matter with you? You did not lose this ball game. We all lost it. No one man loses any ball game. You remember that. You are a good ball player. We need you to play shortstop. Come now, get dressed, let's go out and have a steak.“

—  Roberto Clemente Puerto Rican baseball player 1934 - 1972

English translation of pep talk given on August 21, 1971, after Hernandez' 6th-inning miscue—scored as a hit—had contributed significantly to Cincinnati's 6-3 come-from-behind victory over Pittsburgh http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1971/B08210CIN1971.htm, as quoted in "Playing Games: Bad Day in Cincy" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=iG8mAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Bm0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=5765%2C1664013&dq=clemente-began-talk-spanish by Charley Feeney, in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Tuesday, September 28, 1971), p. 23
Baseball-related, <big><big>1970s</big></big>, <big>1971</big>

„New York is one of the capitals of the world and Los Angeles is a constellation of plastic, San Francisco is a lady, Boston has become Urban Renewal, Philadelphia and Baltimore and Washington wink like dull diamonds in the smog of Eastern Megalopolis, and New Orleans is unremarkable past the French Quarter. Detroit is a one-trade town, Pittsburgh has lost its golden triangle, St Louis has become the golden arch of the corporation, and nights in Kansas City close early. The oil depletion allowance makes Houston and Dallas naught but checkerboards for this sort of game. But Chicago is a great American city. Perhaps it is the last of the great American cities.“

—  Norman Mailer, book Miami and the Siege of Chicago

Pt. 2, p. 83
Miami and the Siege of Chicago (1968)

„"This is what's great about sports. This is what the greatest thing about sports is: you play to win the game. Hello? You play to win the game. You don't play it to just play it. That's the great thing about sports: you play to win, and I don't care if you don't have any wins. You go play to win. When you start tellin' me it doesn't matter, then retire. Get out! 'Cause it matters." - Following a question from New York Times sports reporter Judy Battista on the team's ability to win, on October 30, 2002 after a Week 8 loss to the Cleveland Browns left them at 2&ndash;5. After this speech, the Jets, sparked by the debut of quarterback Chad Pennington, would go 7&ndash;2 and win the AFC Eastern Division Championship.
:This monologue was later incorporated into a TV commercial for Coors Light beer.“

—  Herm Edwards American football player, coach and analyst 1954

With New York

„God.. crack. Only in America would a guy invent crack. Only in America would there be a guy that cocaine wasn't good enough for. You know? One guy walking around New York City back in 1985 going, "You know, that cocaine's pretty good, but I want something that makes my heart explode as soon as I smoke it, ok? I want to take one suck off that crack pipe and go *snort* *splat* Now I'm happy! I'm dead, the ultimate high!"“

—  Denis Leary American actor and comedian 1957

Standup routines, No Cure for Cancer (1993)

„He was born a pauper to a pawn on a Christmas day
When the New York Times said God is dead
And the war's begun.“

—  Elton John English rock singer-songwriter, composer and pianist 1947

Levon
Song lyrics, Madman Across the Water (1971)

„Through your thoughts, you create your own games, and you win your own games because perhaps you have forgotten how to play the real game. What is the real game? It is the game in which the heart is entertained, the game in which you are entertained. It is the game that you will win.“

—  Prem Rawat controversial spiritual leader 1957

Madrid, Spain September 1992
1990s

„In 1965, I was invited to a game theory workshop at Jerusalem which lasted for three weeks and had only 17 participants, but among them all the important researchers in game theory, with few exceptions. Game theory was still a small field. We had heated discussions about Harsanyi's new theory of games with incomplete information. This was the beginning of my long cooperation with John C. Harsanyi.“

—  Reinhard Selten German economist 1930 - 2016

„He's going to go all-the-way. (often quoted by Cosell during the "Halftime Highlights" segment of ABC's Monday Night Football games to announce touchdowns scored in games on Sunday a day earlier. Adopted as a tribute, and modified to include a hesitating voice cadence by Chris Berman of ESPN as He could… go… all… the … way!)“

—  Howard Cosell American sportscaster 1918 - 1995

citation needed

„We need clear rules to play the game. We need to have respect for the law. If you play a chess game but after two or three moves you can change the rules, how can people play with you? Of course you will win, but after 60 years you will still be a bad player because you never meet anyone who can challenge you. What kind of game is that? Is that interesting? This game is not right, but who is going to say, 'Hey, let’s play fairly?“

—  Ai Weiwei Chinese concept artist 1957

2010-

„Sometimes you have to lose a piece to win a game.“

—  Rick Riordan, book The Throne of Fire

Source: The Throne of Fire

„They had no game plan for losing.... Because when you can't win a game, you need to run the clock, don't let it stop, don't throw passes incomplete... get the game over with, get on the bus and go home.“

—  Barry Switzer American football player and coach 1937

Switzer on Oklahoma 79-10 defeat of North Texas in 2007. [Another BCS nightmare may be brewing, http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-dufresne10sep10,0,4827957,full.column, LATimes.com, 2007-09-10, 2007-09-10, Chris, Dufresne]