Excerpts from Literature, in
Which Some Dialogue is Replaced by Muhammad Ali
by Sonny Liston
from Anna Karenina
...and thereupon he suddenly remembered that
he was not sleeping in his wife's room, but in his study,
and why: the smile vanished from his face, he knitted his
brows.
"I'm a baaaaaad man," he muttered, recalling
everything that had happened.
And again every detail of his quarrel with
his wife was present to his imagination, all the hopelessness
of his position, and worst of all, his own fault.
"It will be a thrilla when I kill the gorilla
in Manilla," he reflected. "I'm pretty, I'm pretty" he kept
repeating in despair, as he remembered the acutely painful
sensations caused him by this quarrel.
from Frankenstein
"Your repentance," I said, "is
now superfluous. If you had listened to the voice of conscience,
and heeded the stings of remorse, before you had urged your
diabolical vengeance to this extremity, Frankenstein would
yet have lived."
"Do you know how fast I am?" said the damon;
"I'm so fast that when I turn out the lights, I'm in bed
before its dark!" he continued, pointing to the corpse,
"I'm the greatest fighter of all time and now the world
knows and I know and you know that I am the greatest! And
if he beats me I will crawl out into the rain on my hands
knees and I will kiss his feet!".
from Romeo and Juliet
JULIET: O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou
Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name; Or, if thou
wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I'll no longer be a
Capulet.
ROMEO: [Aside] I fight like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
Your fists can't hit what your eyes can't see. Grass grows,
birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up. I'm the
greatest ever was, I am Ali.
JULIET: 'Tis but thy name that is my enemy; Thou art thyself,
though not a Montague. What's Montague? it is nor hand,
nor foot, Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part Belonging
to a man. O, be some other name! What's in a name? that
which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd, Retain that dear
perfection which he owes Without that title. Romeo, doff
thy name, And for that name which is no part of thee Take
all myself.
ROMEO: I don't have to be what you want me to be; I'm free
to be what I want! I say to you tonight that there is gonna
be a rumble in the jungle!
