Kenneth Lonergan Quotes

Fathers should start teaching the boys how to punch.

I feel like if I ever got into some sort of rumble on the street, I will actually be able to defend myself.

The difference between men and women seems to be this: I can argue with my promoter downstairs, accuse him of ripping me off, and 20 minutes later we'll be playing golf together. With a lady, the same argument can go on for, like, years.

One time, this guy was bothering my mother, and me and my brothers had a stern talking with the guy and a little bit of physicality with him. So he disappeared. But I'm not a magician.

Any man who is a man may not, in honor, submit to threats or violence. But many men who are not cowards are simply unprepared for the fact of human savagery.

They say actually every time I enter the ring, in a way, I'm going to the war. They say to me daily, you are a prized fighter, what's the difference? And I like to say to those critics of the press and the others that there is one hell of a lot of difference in fighting in a ring and going to war in Vietnam.

The trouble is that nonviolence is so often defined as refusal to fight, and that is the American definition of cowardice. In fact, marching unarmed against the guns and dogs of the police requires more courage than does aggression. The perverted idea of manhood coming from the barrel of a gun is what keeps people from understanding nonviolence.

We all come from different levels, and I think every human has their own relationship to violence, athletic violence and fighting.

Some day, my son, you are going to learn that the two greatest joys of being a man are beating the hell out of someone and getting the hell beaten out of you, good night.

I might try that one thing, you know, that thing people do when their eyes get all wet and stupid—what’s it called? Crying? Or NOT. I might PUNCH you instead and trust that you won’t punch me back because of my endearing smallness. It would be like punching a child.

Men and boys always want to go fight. They are always looking for a reason to go to war. It is the saddest thing. They have this abiding notion that war is fun. And no history lesson will convince them differently.

Get your dirty stinking moron knees off my chest.

My last fight was more than 20 years ago. I'm not a fighter, I'm a lover. If somebody's going to speak bad about me, I will walk away. But if a guy like Steven Seagal slaps me once, I will slap him twice as hard. Life is full of violence.

A lot of women do a lot of harm because they don't control their emotions. But in terms of violence, men seem to have a monopoly

I would rather fight with my hands than my tongue.

Don't turn around. 'Cuz you will get punched in the face. Don't make this worse. You've already gone and got me mad. It's too bad, I'm not sad It's casting over. Just one of those things you'll have to get over it.

Scott, if your life had a face, I would punch it. I would punch your life in the face.

Reacher said, "So here's the thing Brett. Either you take your hand off my chest, or I'll take it off your wrist.

Men are so accustomed to maintaining external order by violence that they cannot conceive of life being possible without violence.

If words suffice not, blows must follow.

There'll always be wars because men love wars. Women don't, but men do.

Men are rewarded for learning the practice of violence in virtually any sphere of activity by money, admiration, recognition, respect, and the genuflection of others honoring their sacred and proven masculinity. In male culture, police are heroic and so are outlaws; males who enforce standards are heroic and so are those who violate them.

There is a time for reciting poems and a time for fists.

I can stand out the war with any man.

That's what happens when bodies start slapping.