quote/unquote: Warren Beatty, Marv Albert, Joan Didion, Don Meyer

(editor's note: another in a series from Wilson of St. Louis.)

"I was offered 'The Godfather' before Marlon (Brando) was in it. I was offered 'The Godfather' when Danny Thomas was the leading candidate for the Godfather. And I passed. Jack (Nicholson) passed, also. And I remember something else. I was offered 'The Godfather' to produce and direct. Charlie Bluhdorn was a fan of 'Bonnie and Clyde' and sent me the book...I read it. Sort of. And I said 'Charlie, not another gangster movie.' "
-- Warren Beatty, in "The Godfather Wars," Vanity Fair, March 2009

"The thing about Charles is that, universally, he's been so nice to everyone around him, the people who work in the building, he joshes around with them, people out on the street, the fans, everyone, a lot of people don't like that kind of contact, but Charles always has. And I think that will serve him well when he comes back. Charles, he'll find a way to embrace this. A lot of guys hide and might not want to deal with it all, but Charles will. Fans are very forgiving and understanding."
-- Marv Albert, commenting on Charles Barkley's return to "Inside the NBA" on TNT Thursday after his DUI. Since he was off the show, ratings have dropped 38 percent

"No one who ever passed through an American public high school could have watched William Jefferson Clinton running for office in 1992 and failed to recognize the familiar predatory sexuality of the provincial adolescent. The man was, Jesse Jackson said that year to another point, "nothing but an appetite." No one who followed his appearances on 'The Road to the White House' on C-SPAN could have missed the reservoir of self-pity, the quickness to blame, the narrowing of the eyes, as in a wildlife documentary, when things did not go his way: a response so reliable that aides on Jerry Brown's 1992 campaign looked for situations in which it could be provoked."
------- "Clinton Agonistes" by Joan Didion, New York Review of Books Sept. 22, 1998

"It's a game at a time. . . just like it's a day at a time. When you've come through the thing that I've come through, it's a day at a time. Every morning I wake up I check to make sure to see if I'm alive and I start thanking God and I hope I can do something good with that day because I don't know how many days I have left. None of us does."
------NPR, Feb. 18, '09, Don Meyer, the winningest coach in college basketball, at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota. He lost a leg in a car wreck last year, and now has inoperable cancer and coaches from a wheelchair.