“Here’s the thing about Red Sox fans, or actually just fans from that region, in general: they appreciate the effort. And if you mail it in or if you give 80 percent, even with a win, they’ll let you know that’s not how you do it. They want – if it’s comedian, if it’s a musician, bring us your best show.”

— Dane Cook (born 1972), American comedian

“For no matter how they might want to ignore it, there was an excellence about this city (Boston), an air of reason, a feeling for beauty, a memory of something very good, and perhaps a reminiscence of the vast aspiration of man which could never entirely vanish.”

-- Arona McHugh (1925-1996), American writer

“Here {Boston} were held the town-meetings that ushered in the Revolution; Here Samuel Adams, James Otis and Joseph Warren exhorted; Here the men of Boston proved themselves independent, courageous freemen, worthy to raise issues which were to concern the liberty and happiness of millions yet unborn.” —sign at the entrance of the Old South Meeting House, author unknown

“Its driving energy sparked always by independence and freedom of the spirit — can this be anywhere so strong, so fascinating, so enduring as in Massachusetts?”

— Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973), Nobel Prize-winning novelist