I can entertain the proposition that life is a metaphor for boxing — for one of those bouts that go on and on, round following round, jabs, missed punches, clinches, nothing determined, again the bell and again and you and your opponent so evenly matched it’s impossible not to see your opponent is you.

Joyce Carol Oates (b. 1938) American author
“On Boxing,” On Boxing (1987)
    (Source)