"The courage of the boxer is the most admired quality in sport. And when that courage is called upon, as it is at its highest level, when the boxing match is all even and both boxers are exhausted, and one must seize an advantage, it calls upon the highest human virtues: the determination to endure, the refusal to quit, the self-belief, the pride, and very often the sheer self-love that is necessary to the extraordinary labor of being oneself." Joyce Carol Oates, poet, novelist, short story writer, playwright and essayist. "About boxing", Stock 1988.