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I still think we ought to just hire the town and take it with us. Then we'd have a good barkeep and someone to play the pianer. -- Larry Mcmurtry
If you want one thing too much it's likely to be a disappointment. The healthy way is to learn to like the everyday things, like soft beds and buttermilk - and feisty gentlemen. -- Larry Mcmurtry
You told me to stay," July said. "I know I did, son," Augustus said. "I'm sure you wish you had. But yesterday's gone on down the river and you can't get it back. Go on with your digging and I'll tidy up. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Of course she teased the girls, but it was not the same as having a grown man to work on - she had often felt like pinching Bob for being so stolid. July was no better - in fact, he and Bob were cut from the same mold, a strong but unimaginative mold. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Mystery is underrated, and understanding is overrated. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Po Campo had given him a hailstone dipped in molasses and he sat licking it and feeling alternately happy and sad while the men got dressed and prepared to be cowboys again. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Well, boys," Long Bill said. "I guess here's where I quit rangering. It's rare sport, but it ain't quite safe. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Certainly on the vast windy plain, there was plenty of nothing to be looked at. -- Larry Mcmurtry
You don't get the pint, Woodrow, I've walked the earth in my pride all these years. If that's lost, then let the rest be lost with it. There's certain things my vanity won't abide. -- Larry Mcmurtry
If you did a thing hoping a person wouldn't find out, that person always did. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Don't be trying to give back pain for pain ... You can't get even measures in business like this. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I doubt it matters where you die, but it matters where you live." Call -- Larry Mcmurtry
It only went to show what he already knew, which was that there were more dangers in life than even the sharpest training could anticipate. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I was just doodling at the typewriter, -- Larry Mcmurtry
He might die, but at least he could fight first, and not simply pass his days shaking at the expectation of slaughter. -- Larry Mcmurtry
One of the things that Ang brings to all of his projects is his deep sense of being a double exile, an outsider's outsider. -- Larry Mcmurtry
But as far as trusting the general run of men, there was no need, since she had no intention of ever expecting anything from one of them again. -- Larry Mcmurtry
He had his knife and gun belt on over his underwear, in case of sudden attack. -- Larry Mcmurtry
No, but I have passed the point in life where I expect to be satisfied," Augustus said. "At least I don't expect to be satisfied with much. When it comes right down to it, Woodrow, I guess my own cooking beats anything I've come across in this life. -- Larry Mcmurtry
What would you know about anything, Jasper?" Augustus asked. "Age don't slow a man's whoring. It's lack of income that does that. No more prosperous than you look, I wouldn't think you'd know much about it. -- Larry Mcmurtry
He thought living in a place where there were eagles to watch might encourage some pretty good dreams. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I don't think you ever wanted to be happy anyway. It don't suit you, so you managed to avoid it. -- Larry Mcmurtry
No half measures, he muttered several times. It was his personal motto; he intended to have it latinised and put on a crest. -- Larry Mcmurtry
No matter how well he worked. It was a little discouraging: the harder he tried to please the Captain, the less the Captain seemed to be pleased. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Such is the life and death of a good cowboy. -- Larry Mcmurtry
It didn't do to ignore men. The majority of them were harmless, with nothing worse than a low capacity to irritate - they were worse than chiggers but not as bad as bedbugs, in her view. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Could any woman live every day with that level of masculinity? -- Larry Mcmurtry
He wondered if all men felt such disappointment when thinking of themselves. He didn't know. -- Larry Mcmurtry
For a time Dish lost all sense of what life was about. He even lost the sense that he was a cowboy, the strongest sense he had to work with. He was just a fellow with a glass in his hand, whose life had suddenly turned to mud. The day before he had been a top hand, but what did that mean anymore? -- Larry Mcmurtry
If you're planning on dying today I hope you dig your grave first. -- Larry Mcmurtry
WHEN AUGUSTUS CAME OUT on the porch the blue pigs were eating a rattlesnake - not a very big one. It had probably just been crawling around looking for shade when it ran into the pigs. They were having a fine tug-of-war with it, and its rattling days were over. -- Larry Mcmurtry
It's a fine world, though rich in hardships at times. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Don't be reviling yourself. None of us is such fine judges of what to do. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Alone. "A military unit is a fine thing when it works," he said. "But it usually don't work. A solitary feat of arms is better, if the foe is worthy. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Afterwards the members of the little war party felt fine. Torturing whites was a splendid way to spend the afternoon. -- Larry Mcmurtry
You should marry me", he said. "I will be good to you. I am not like these men. I have manners. You would see how kind I would be. I would never leave you. You could have an easy life. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Americans' lack of passion for history is well known. History may not quite be bunk, as Henry Ford suggested, but there's no denying that, as a people, we sustain a passionate concentration on the present and the future. -- Larry Mcmurtry
It's very peculiar, the situations life presents one with, Father Geoff reflected. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Of all the women he knew, she had meant the most; and was the one person in his life he felt he had missed, in some ways. -- Larry Mcmurtry
It ain't dying I'm talking about, it's living. I doubt it matters where you die, but it matters where you live." ~spoken by Augustus McCrae -- Larry Mcmurtry
And it's the only whorehouse in town. They say if you can sprout up twelve inches of dick you get to fuck free. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I'm sure partial to the evening,' Augustus said. 'The evening and the morning. If we just didn't have to have the rest of the dern day I'd be a lot happier. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Razzy was insulting me silently somehow. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Certain mountains were that way, like the Bighorns. The air around them was so clear you could ride toward them for days without seeming to get any closer. And yet, if you kept riding, you would get to the mountains. He was not so sure he would ever get to Lorie. -- Larry Mcmurtry
He sat where he was, on Mouse, in the grip of terrible indecision. He almost wished something would happen - a sudden attack of Mexicans or something. He might be killed, but at least he wouldn't have to make a choice between disobeying Mr. Gus and disobeying Lorena. -- Larry Mcmurtry
In the last year or two he had not only grown indifferent to company, he had begun to find it irritating. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Jake, you're a dern grasshopper," Augustus said. "You ride in yesterday talking Montana, and today you're talking California. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I don't eat the white of eggs if I can help it," Jasper said. "I hear it causes blindness. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I don't sing about myself. I sing about life. I am happy, but life is sad. The songs don't belong to me . . . They belong to those who hear them. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I see you're in a hurry to get someplace. It's a great mistake to hurry." "Why?" Joe asked, puzzled by almost everything the traveler said. "Because the grave's our destination," Mr. Sedgwick said. "Those who hurry usually get to it quicker than those who take their time. -- Larry Mcmurtry
The thought crossed his mind that he ought to have married her and not gone rambling. If he had, he wouldn't be in such a fix. But he felt little fear; just an overpowering fatigue. Life had slipped out of line. It was unfair, it was too bad, but he couldn't find the energy to fight it any longer. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Pea Eye loped up and unfolded himself in the direction of the ground. "Your getting off a horse reminds me of an old crane landing in a mud puddle," Augustus said. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Show business imposes its own strict temporality: no matter how many CDs or DVDs we own, it would still have been better to have been there, to have seen the living performers in the richness of their being and to have participated, however briefly, in the glory of their performance. -- Larry Mcmurtry
When dawn spread its cool clear flush over the meadows and fields and thorny pastures to the north and east, Duane pulled an old lawn chair out of the cabin and sat down to watch, cradling a cup of coffee in his hands. It was chilly enough that he threw an old poncho over his lap. -- Larry Mcmurtry
The first difference Newt noticed about being grown up was that time didn't pass as slow. -- Larry Mcmurtry
She may know what I am, though," Lorena said.
"Yes, she'll know you're a human being. You don't have to duck your head to nobody. Half the women in this country probably started out like you did, workin' in saloons. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I'm a fastidious bookman and have never liked reading books with library markings or other messy defects. -- Larry Mcmurtry
We might all get killed this afternoon, for all I know. That's the wild for you - it's got its dangers, which is part of the beauty. -- Larry Mcmurtry
He had learned in his years of tracking Indians that things which seemed impossible often weren't. They only became so if one thought about them too much so that fear took over. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I sing about life. I am happy, but life is sad. -- Larry Mcmurtry
You probably drink too much. If you hand me that bottle, I'll reduce your temptations.
Augustus "Gus" McCrae -- Larry Mcmurtry
There was said to be measuring of penises at the Orchid, but was it true and if so what did that mean? -- Larry Mcmurtry
Getting up early and feeling awake was the one skill he had never truly perfected - he got up, of course, but it never felt natural. -- Larry Mcmurtry
He was fairly drunk, and feeling melancholy about all the sinking he had done in the world. Throughout the rough years the Greek alphabet had leaked out of his mind a letter at a time - in fact, the candle of knowledge he had set out with had burned down to a sorry stub. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Basically Jake just dreamed his way through life and somehow got by with it. -- Larry Mcmurtry
If I had a mind to rent pigs, I'd be mighty upset. A man that likes to rent pigs won't be stopped. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Deets slapped his leg and laughed, the thought was so funny. When the rest of the outfit finally wondered down from the house they found the two of them grinning back and forth at one another.
"Look at 'em," Augustus said. "You'd think they just discovered teeth. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I just got gang-egged, or egg-banged or something.
Sheriff Toots Burns. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Dern, I hate cooking with shit.
Augustus McCrae to Lorena Wood -- Larry Mcmurtry
Best to help such boys have their moment of fun, before life's torments snatched them. -- Larry Mcmurtry
At times he felt that he had almost rather not be in love with her, for it brought him no peace. What was the use of it, if it was only going to be painful? -- Larry Mcmurtry
He gathers information that we can't see, and puts it together. -- Larry Mcmurtry
When we finish up with this planet the insects will take over. You may not think it, seeing all this fair land, but the days of the human race are numbered. The insects are waiting their turn. -- Larry Mcmurtry
This is a damn useless conversation. Goodbye. (Charles Goodnight to Woodrow Call) -- Larry Mcmurtry
They respected only the strong men who could not be insulted without a price being paid in blood. -- Larry Mcmurtry
It's my fault for not shooting the son of a bitch while he was drinking. I didn't know who he was at the time, but I should have shot him on suspicion. And then I plumb forgot about it all day. I'm getting too foolish to live. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Life in San Francisco is still just life. If you want one thing too much it's likely to be a disappointment. The healthy way is to learn to like the everyday things, like soft beds and buttermilk - and -- Larry Mcmurtry
She didn't know what to do with the severed leg. She had cut it off, but she didn't want to touch it or even look at it. -- Larry Mcmurtry
For most of the hours of the day - and most of the months of the year - the sun had the town trapped deep in dust, far out in the chaparral flats, a heaven for snakes and horned toads, roadrunners and stinging lizards, but a hell for pigs and Tennesseans. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Several times in his life he had felt an intense desire to start over, to somehow turn back the clock of his life to a point where he might, if he were careful, avoid the many mistakes he had made the first time around. -- Larry Mcmurtry
By far my most popular novel, and one that allows me to join the small company of "respectable" writers whose fiction deals with the American West: Cormac McCarthy, Walter Van Tilburg Clark, Tom Lee and a handful of others, -- Larry Mcmurtry
She had a beautiful face, a beautiful body, but also a distance in her such as he had never met a woman. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Sometimes Sonny felt like he was the only human creature in the town. It was a bad feeling, and it usually came on him in the mornings early, when the streets were completely empty, the way they were one Saturday morning in late November. -- Larry Mcmurtry
He had known several men who blew their heads off, and he had pondered it much. It seemed to him it was probably because they could not take enough happiness just from the sky and the moon to carry them over the low feelings that came to all men. -- Larry Mcmurtry
You don't look strong enough to trouble nobody around here ... We grow our own troubles
it would be a novelty to have some we ain't already used to. -- Larry Mcmurtry
It's his dern laziness," Call said. "Jake just kind of drifts. Any wind can blow him. -- Larry Mcmurtry
You can scare off a lot of cowboys just by looking mean, I guess. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Americans don't want cowboys to be gay. -- Larry Mcmurtry
If I'd have wanted civilization I'd have stayed in Tennessee and wrote poetry for a living, -- Larry Mcmurtry
Henpecked, the great Wyatt Earp," Cody said.
"You evidently don't know Jessie," Wyatt said. "If she's in one of her tempers she'd put a hyena to flight ... -- Larry Mcmurtry
The earth is mostly just a boneyard. But pretty in the sunlight. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I never met a soul in this world as normal as me. -- Larry Mcmurtry
A chain of follies had put him there: Call's abrupt decision to become a cattleman and his own decision, equally abrupt, to try and rescue a girl foolish enough to be taken in by Jake Spoon. None of it was sensible, yet he had to admit there was something about such follies that he liked. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Famous Shoes knew the young ranger was scared. Nothing was easier to detect in a man than fear. It showed even in the way he fumbled with his cup while drinking coffee; and it was normal that he would be afraid. He didn't know where he was, -- Larry Mcmurtry
His memories were too sad, his hopes too thin. To have to say things on paper seemed a terrible task, for it stirred the memories. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Her own folly amused her: she had once thought of herself as smart - but look at where she was. -- Larry Mcmurtry
The lives of happy people are dense with their own doings
crowded, active, thick. But the sorrowing are nomads, on a plain with few landmarks and no boundaries; sorrow's horizons are vague and its demands are few. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Looking at her, though, was like looking at the hills. The hills stayed as they were. You could go them, if you had the means, but they extended no greeting. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Give Call a grievance, however silly, and he would save it like money. -- Larry Mcmurtry
It's like I told you last night son. The earth is mostly just a boneyard. But pretty in the sunlight, he added -- Larry Mcmurtry
It was wearying, trying to adjust to all the paces life required. -- Larry Mcmurtry
He didn't feel sad. The one thing he knew about Texas was that he was lucky to be leaving it alive - and, in fact, he had a long way to go before he could be sure of accomplishing that much. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Great readers (are) those who know early that there is never going to be time to read all there is to read, but do their darnedest anyway. -- Larry Mcmurtry
He had not stayed, but when he had gone, he hadn't fought, either. He had done nothing but ride twice over the same stretch of prairie, while death had come to both camps. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I needed a man," Call replied. "I was hoping he might turn out to be a fighter." "No, he's just a jailer," Billy said. -- Larry Mcmurtry
It was a weakness, but he could not bear to disappoint women, even if it was ultimately for their own good. -- Larry Mcmurtry
A man who wouldn't cheat for a poke don't want one bad enough.
Augustus "Gus" McCrae -- Larry Mcmurtry
Listening to women ain't the fashion in this part of the country.
Augustus McCrae -- Larry Mcmurtry
Though loyal and able and brave, Pea had never displayed the slightest ability to learn from his experience, though his experience was considerable. Time and again he would walk up on the wrong side of a horse that was known to kick, and then look surprised when he got kicked. -- Larry Mcmurtry
The smartest man alive can't learn much about a woman in two weeks. -- Larry Mcmurtry
You're the only man I know whose brain don't work unless it's in the shade. -- Larry Mcmurtry
People are always turning out to be tougher than I think they are. -- Larry Mcmurtry
It's funny, leaving a place, ain't it?" he said. "You never do know when you'll get back. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Why in the hell would anybody think they wanted to take cattle to Montana?" Dixon, the scout, said. He had an insolent look.
"We thought it would be a good place to sit back and watch 'em shit," Augustus said. Insolence was apt to bring out the comic in him. -- Larry Mcmurtry
It was a quiet day in Tombstone. -- Larry Mcmurtry
No medicine man or wise man knew why one man died and another lived. Wise men themselves often died before fools, and cowards before men who were brave. -- Larry Mcmurtry
He remembered the cold nights in their Arkansas cabin when he was a boy - how his mother piled quilts on top of him and his brothers, how peaceful it seemed under the quilts. Then it seemed like sleep was one of the most wonderful things in life. -- Larry Mcmurtry
He was annoyed with his mind - it would be a lot easier to do his task well if his mind would just behave and not keep making him scared. -- Larry Mcmurtry
If you wait, all that happens is that you get older. -- Larry Mcmurtry
It's really quite simple. Mr. Isinglass robbed my father, destroyed my mother, exiled my brothers, and ruined me. If I catch him asleep I'll kill him. I do hope you like this pudding. I had to ride quite a way to find the plums. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Captain McCrae was wanting to know the answer to questions that had no answer. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I think its a sickness to grieve too much for those who never cared a fig for you. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I hate rude behavior in a man,' he explained in his quiet, unassuming drawl. 'I won't tolerate it.' He politely tipped his hat, and rode away. -- Larry Mcmurtry
The crimes the law can understand are not the worst crimes. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I don't guess I've watched you punish yourself for thirty years to be totally wrong about you. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Monkey John looked at the dead boy. "By God, life is cheap up here on the goddamned Canadian River."
"Cheap," Blue Duck answered. "And it might get cheaper. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Figure the reason you don't have much to say is you probably never met a man who liked to hear a woman talk. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Texas is rich in unredeemed dreams -- Larry Mcmurtry
No illusion is more crucial than the illusion that great success and huge money buy you immunity from the common ills of mankind, such as cars that won't start. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Backward is just not a natural direction for Americans to look - historical ignorance remains a national characteristic. -- Larry Mcmurtry
As the day died and the afterglow stretched upward in the soft, empty sky, the Hat Creek outfit, seven strong, crossed the river and rode southeast, toward the Hacienda Flores. -- Larry Mcmurtry
If you mean Miss Austen, I don't find her particularly romantic," Tasmin declared. "Can't say that I care much about the marriage arrangements among the middle classes."
Tasmin Berrybender -- Larry Mcmurtry
Son, this is a sad thing," Augustus said. "Loss of life always is. But the life is lost for good. Don't you go attempting vengeance. You've got more urgent business. If I ever run into Blue Duck I'll kill -- Larry Mcmurtry
By the time the shade had reached the river, Augustus would have mellowed with the evening and be ready for some intelligent conversation, which usually involved talking to himself. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I don't see how being married could be any worse than listening to you talk for twenty years, but that still ain't much of a recommendation for it. -- Larry Mcmurtry
The moment indifference took over, life began to subside. Few men rose out of it: most lost all impulse toward activity and ended by offering death at least a halfhearted welcome. -- Larry Mcmurtry
The only bookstore I had was the paperback rack at the drugstore. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Self-parody is the first portent of age. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Is the girl all right?" "She's had an ordeal but she's young," Augustus said. "She won't forget it, but she might outlive it. -- Larry Mcmurtry
He had hit with his closed fist and knocked her sprawling. It took talent to make Wyatt lose his temper, but Jessie knew just how to do it, and did it mainly just to have something happening. Pouring whiskey from bottle to glass was boring work. -- Larry Mcmurtry
It's happiness to see you. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Buffalo Hump knew his son was brave, but that was not enough. If a warrior lacked wisdom, courage alone would not keep him alive for long. -- Larry Mcmurtry
In times of crisis human beings don't have it in them to be rational. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Governors and legislators wanted the hostiles held in check and the bandits hung, but they wanted it all to be done with the fewest possible men on the cheapest possible horses. It irritated Call and infuriated Augustus. -- Larry Mcmurtry
His feet were swollen to twice their size, besides being cut here and there. Yet they were the only feet he had, and after dozing for an hour in the sun, he got up and hobbled on. -- Larry Mcmurtry
But mash whiskey took some of the dry away and made Augustus feel nicely misty inside - foggy and cool as a morning in the Tennessee hills. He seldom got downright drunk, but he did enjoy feeling misty along about sundown, -- Larry Mcmurtry
They sorry," Deets said. "Saying won't change it. He's gone, don't worry about him. He's gone to the peaceful place." He put his hand -- Larry Mcmurtry
Members of the Academy are mostly urban people. We are an urban nation. We are not a rural nation. It's not easy even to get a rural story made. -- Larry Mcmurtry
You know Deets is like me - he's not one to quit on a garment just because it's got a little age - spoken by Augustus McCrae -- Larry Mcmurtry
It seemed to him harder, as he got older, to find a simple way of life. -- Larry Mcmurtry
You better introduce yourself before you start talking Latin. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Why hell yes, Joe Bob! A cripple can always get himself a wooden leg, or a glass eye, or a metal hook for a hand, or any of that mess
but there ain't no known substitute for a big dick. I guess you is out of luck! -- Larry Mcmurtry
A man that ain't willin' to cheat for a poke don't want it bad enough. -- Larry Mcmurtry
It feels silly to kiss a smile. At best you just sort of bump teeth. -- Larry Mcmurtry
A man can only do a given thing so many times with freshness and spirit--then, no matter what it is, it becomes like an office task. I enjoy cards and whoring, but even cards and whoring can grow boresome. You tup your wife a thousand times and that becomes an office task, too. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Life ain't for sissies, as Augustus might have said. -- Larry Mcmurtry
He loved the way she smelled in the mornings; he liked to sniff at her shoulders or her throat. -- Larry Mcmurtry
He didn't tell Newt all he knew. He didn't tell him that even when life seemed easy, it kept on getting harder. -- Larry Mcmurtry
In the vastness of the desert, each reduction of the group made them realize how small they were, how puny, in relation to the space they were traveling through. -- Larry Mcmurtry
You expect far too much of a first sentence. Think of it as analogous to a good country breakfast: what we want is something simple, but nourishing to the imagination. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I don't claim to know much: cards, fucking, and dentistry about covers it, Doc said. -- Larry Mcmurtry
The older the violin, the sweeter the music. -- Larry Mcmurtry
It was something, what must go through men's mind where women were concerned, to cause them to behave so strangely. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I figured out something, Lorie," he said. "I figured out why you and me get along so well. You know more than you say and I say more than I know. That means we're a perfect match, as long as we don't hang around one another more than an hour at a stretch. -- Larry Mcmurtry
When the lightning struck, the whole prairie would be bathed for a second in white light. -- Larry Mcmurtry
The best to do with a death was to move on from it. -- Larry Mcmurtry
She had always loved to tease and considered it an irony of her life that she was often drawn to men who didn't recognize teasing even when she was inflicting it on them. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Well, I got to admit I still like a fight," Augustus said. "They sharpen the wits. The only other thing that does that is talking to women, which is usually more dangerous. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Perhaps, he thought, as he turned back, that was what Augustus wanted: just to be free for a few days, just to saddle his horse and ride. -- Larry Mcmurtry
The seven of them rode for two hours into country that seemed to contain nothing except itself. -- Larry Mcmurtry
It was often that way with women, it seemed. One minute Lorie would be drilling holes in him with her eyes, and the next minute she and Clarie would be combing one another's hair and singing tunes. -- Larry Mcmurtry
though his day-to-day responsibilities had constantly shrunk over the last ten years, life did not seem easier. It just seemed smaller and a good deal more dull. Call -- Larry Mcmurtry
Life makes everybody strange, if you keep living long enough, -- Larry Mcmurtry
My main skills are talking and cooking biscuits,' Augustus said. 'And getting drunk on the porch. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Everyone who came to see him asked questions that were either stupid or impertinent. Better to see no one than to see fools. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Through my college years, topping that ridge had always given me a great sense of being home, but time had diminished the emotion and I had begun to suspect that home was less a place than an empty page. -- Larry Mcmurtry
A man that sleeps all night wastes too much of life. -- Larry Mcmurtry
It was only the thought that Deets was still knowing him, somehow, that kept him from feeling totally alone. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Little by little, the look of the land changes by the men we admire. -- Larry Mcmurtry
You ought to take more chances," I said.
"I took too many earlier," she said. "I'm sorry. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Now speech had left her; fear took its place. -- Larry Mcmurtry
If he didn't like the way she did things, he was free to do them different - but he never did them different. He just fussed at her. -- Larry Mcmurtry
He ought to let the past keep its glow and not try to mix it with what he had in the present. -- Larry Mcmurtry
They don't know it, but the wrath of the Lord is about to descend upon them. -- Larry Mcmurtry
It ain't a mistake to behave like a human being once in a while, -- Larry Mcmurtry
Once started, love couldn't easily be stopped. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Who asked them dern pigs?" he said. "I guess they tracked us," Augustus said. "They're enterprising pigs. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Part of him wanted to remember; part of him needed to forget. -- Larry Mcmurtry
If we know anything about man, it's that he's not pacific. The temptation to butcher anyone considered undesirable seems to be a common temptation, not always resisted. -- Larry Mcmurtry
It was something he had always done - moved apart, so he could be alone and think things or a little. -- Larry Mcmurtry
It is sometimes the minor, not the major, characters in a novel who hold the author's affection longest. It may be that one loses affection for the major characters because they suck off so much energy as one pushes them through their lives. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Every time Roscoe tried to think back along the line of events that had led to his being in a place where there was no trees to lean against, he strayed off the line and soon got all tangled up in his thinking. It was probably better not to try and think back down the line of life. -- Larry Mcmurtry
The woman had won. In the end, it seemed they always did. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Only a rank degenerate would drive 1,500 miles across Texas without eating a chicken fried steak. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Occasionally the very youngness of the young moved him to charity - they had no sense of the swiftness of life, nor of its limits. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I suppose she's just dying of living
that's the one infection that strikes us all down, sooner or later. -- Larry Mcmurtry
There would be a trial, of course. But I had watched a few trials in Thalia, and I had seen people a lot dumber than Hud get away with a lot worse than what he did. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Of course she teased the girls, but it was not the same as having a grown man to work on - she had often felt like pinching Bob for being so stolid. July was no better - in fact, he and Bob were cut from the same mold, a strong>strongstrong> but unimaginative mold. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Maybe you can make art out of unredeemed pain, but only if you're a genius
Dostoyevsky perhaps. -- Larry Mcmurtry
It seemed to him there was never much time with women. Before you could look at one twice, you were into an argument, and they were telling you what was going to happen. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I sometimes think the sexual organs were put there to keep the human race humble," she said. "They've certainly kept me humble. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Besides, though she considered herself his sweetheart, she didn't consider him her master. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I ain't kin to nobody in this world. I don't want to be. I won't be. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I suppose you set up reading the Good Book all night-spoken by Woodrow Call -- Larry Mcmurtry
Wantin' takes too much time ... I'd rather be working. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Many white men could not trust things unless they could be explained; and yet the most beautiful things, such as the trackless flight of birds, could never be explained. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Trees had been so common that it was a shock to ride out on the plains and discover that there was a part of earth where there weren't any. -- Larry Mcmurtry
could put no weight on the wounded ankle at -- Larry Mcmurtry
Writing is a form of herding. I herd words into little paragraph-like clusters. -- Larry Mcmurtry
CHERFUL IN ALL WEATHERS, NEVER SHERKED A TASK, SPLENDID BEHAVIOUR. -- Larry Mcmurtry
He didn't understand why women had such a need to question. He himself preferred just to let life happen, and act when opportunity arose. -- Larry Mcmurtry
That things were mysterious did not make them less valuable. -- Larry Mcmurtry
You're like a starving person whose stomach is shrunk up from not having any food. You're shrunk up from not wanting nothing. -- Larry Mcmurtry
It was inconsiderate, she thought, how blandly people mentioned the future in the sick rooms. Phrases like next summer were always popping out; people made such assumptions about their own continuity. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I don't know anything about babies," he said. "No, and you've never lived any place but Arkansas," Clara said. "But you ain't stupid and you ain't nailed down. You can live other places and you can learn about children - people dumber than you learn about them. -- Larry Mcmurtry
It was as if his whole life had suddenly lodged in his throat, a raw bite he could neither spit out nor swallow. -- Larry Mcmurtry
The skinny ones last longer than the fat ones," Louisa said. "You'll probably last till you're about sixty. -- Larry Mcmurtry
But just let me tell you something, son, a woman's love is like the morning dew, it's just as apt to settle on a horse turd as it is on a rose. So you better just get over it. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I'd like to see you think the roof back on that barn," Call said. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Was necessary to ignore most of those Gus made or else you got bogged down in useless conversation. -- Larry Mcmurtry
There seem to be no way he could stop anything that was happening, although it all felt wrong. -- Larry Mcmurtry
In fact, July felt he had reached a point in his life where virtually nothing was known. -- Larry Mcmurtry
It's just that it's fearsome for a man to have a woman start thinking right in front of him. It always leads to trouble. -- Larry Mcmurtry
True maturity is only reached when a man realizes he has become a father figure to his girlfriends' boyfriends - and he accepts it. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Nothing good ever comes without a price. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Maude Rainey was built like a barrel, with a bosom as big as buckets and a voice that some claimed would make hair fall out. -- Larry Mcmurtry
From him to the stars, in all directions, there was only silence and emptiness. -- Larry Mcmurtry
The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters -- Larry Mcmurtry
The years would pass like weeks, and loves would pass too, or else grow sour. -- Larry Mcmurtry
He knew what he could certainly do, and what he might do if he was lucky, and what he couldn't do barring a miracle. -- Larry Mcmurtry
The other men were easy to talk to, but they didn't know anything. If one stopped to think about it, it was depressing how little most men learned in their lifetimes. -- Larry Mcmurtry
It doesn't do to sacrifice for people unless they want you to," Clara said. "It's just a waste. -- Larry Mcmurtry
How about a kiss?"
"Are you man enough to try?" she asked. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Yesterday's gone on down the river and you can't get it back. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Ever since he was a little boy, he had always tried to make things sound better than they actually were. -- Larry Mcmurtry
A man that will go along with six killings is making his escape a little slow. -- Larry Mcmurtry
When Newt walked in the barn to get a rope, the Captain turned and handed him a holstered pistol and a gun belt. "Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it," he added, a little solemnly. -- Larry Mcmurtry
He had seen highly competent men stand as if paralyzed in a crisis, though once someone took command and told them what to do they might perform splendidly. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Maude Jones, had killed herself with a shotgun one morning, leaving a note which merely said, 'Can't stand listening to this wind no more. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I once owned a collection of 77 novels that won the Pulitzer. The only good novel of the bunch was The Grapes of Wrath. -- Larry Mcmurtry
She wasn't going to succeed in newspapers if she didn't ask the big questions when she could. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I pride myself on being able to put up with a lot," Nellie said. "But bagpipers are pretty much my limit. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Me and Call have always liked to get where we started for, even if it don't make a damn bit of sense. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Nobody run off with her," Roscoe said. "She just run off with herself, I guess. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Do you know what it means to be heartbroken?...It means your heart isn't whole, so you can't really do anything wholeheartedly. -- Larry Mcmurtry
it seemed he had to be talking every waking minute as a means of holding his own fears in balance. -- Larry Mcmurtry
What if I hit the man?" Newt said. "That's his worry," Call said. "Not letting him ride away is your worry." They -- Larry Mcmurtry
Part of the trick of being happy is a refusal to allow oneself to become too nostalgic for the heady triumphs of one's youth. -- Larry Mcmurtry
by the end of the week, all the cowboys along the river knew that the only sporting woman in Lonesome Dove had abruptly given up the sport. -- Larry Mcmurtry
A good title can save a book, -- Larry Mcmurtry
I've seen your father bury many a man, but I never saw him take this kind of pains." Newt -- Larry Mcmurtry
The family got nervous about blood poisoning and persuaded he and Call to saw it off. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I'd rather go outlaw than be a doctor or a lawyer. -- Larry Mcmurtry
A sleeping man would miss the best of the evening, and the moonrise as well. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Death and worse happened on the plains. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I'd hate to read all these books ... that much reading could put your eyes out. -- Larry Mcmurtry
The reason men are so awful is because some woman has spoiled them. -- Larry Mcmurtry
A woman's love is like the morning dew. It's just as likely to settle on a horse turd as a rose. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Woodrow don't mention nothing he can keep from mentioning. You couldn't call him a mentioner. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Young things mainly belong to themselves. How they grow up depends on who gets attached to them. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I don't do well with changes in my routine. I read at least three newspapers a day, for example. I'm frustrated if for some reason I can't get ahold of all three. -- Larry Mcmurtry
He decided not to shoot the tall stranger, mainly because he admired his soft felt hat. -- Larry Mcmurtry
The Western notion of masculinity goes back a long way. It doesn't allow for women, and it's also racist - it doesn't allow for other cultures. -- Larry Mcmurtry
They say money kinda melts when you take it across a border. -- Larry Mcmurtry
He was tired of seeing his family only in dreams. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I miss Gus ... I get to expecting to hear him talk and he ain't here. My ears sort of get empty. -- Larry Mcmurtry
There's nothing that sweetens the breath like a cedar toothpick, unless it's mint. And mint don't grow in these parts. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Talk's the way to kill it. Anything gets boring if you talk about it enough, even death. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I'm tired of justice, ain't you? -- Larry Mcmurtry
Losing weight. When we finish eating this horse I -- Larry Mcmurtry
Billy the Kid shooting all those people over in New Mexico has made gunfighting real popular with the public. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I don't believe in protein," I said. "I think it's a myth, like vitamins. I don't believe in nutrition, in fact. I think it's all a myth. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Better by far never to have known the pleasure than to have the pain that followed. -- Larry Mcmurtry
But the English are different, and they don't know how to be other than different. -- Larry Mcmurtry
They say he missed that whore. -- Larry Mcmurtry
His purpose was to get done what needed to be done, and what needed to be done was simple, if not easy. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I'll pass on snow myself, when I have the option. -- Larry Mcmurtry
During the day he had not trusted enough, and had worn himself out with pointless scurryings. -- Larry Mcmurtry
But then July accepted it and never scolded back, so perhaps that was the way of the world: women scolded, and men kept quiet and stayed out of the way as much as possible. -- Larry Mcmurtry
passing insults back and forth, as if they were biscuits. -- Larry Mcmurtry
We mostly quarreled. He wanted what I wouldn't give. I wanted what he didn't have. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Live through it," Call said. "That's all we can do. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Somewhere along the Rio Concho, he had stopped feeling that he lived in a world where ledgers mattered. -- Larry Mcmurtry
You are like me, a free man. The sky is your wife. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Anyway, whacking a surly bartender ain't much of a crime. -- Larry Mcmurtry
People got opinions, that's all they've got. -- Larry Mcmurtry
She sighed. Men were a pain. -- Larry Mcmurtry
He himself had once been a man of firm opinion, but now it seemed to him that he knew almost nothing, whereas the words Clara flung at him were hard as rocks. -- Larry Mcmurtry
However, he didn't have a high opinion of the average man's ability as a fighter. The majority of men couldn't fight at all and even most outlaws were the merest amateurs when it came to battle. Few could shoot well, and even fewer had any mind for strategy. -- Larry Mcmurtry
The whole point of loyalty was not to change: stick with those who stuck with you. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I won't tolerate vanity in a man, though I will in a woman. -- Larry Mcmurtry
People would be bored shitless if they had to love only the good in someone they care about. -- Larry Mcmurtry
all vessels leaked to some degree. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Incompetents invariably made trouble for people other than themselves. -- Larry Mcmurtry
He liked to get off by himself, a mile or so from camp, and listen to the country, not the men. -- Larry Mcmurtry
They probably think the sun won't come up unless you're there to allow it. -- Larry Mcmurtry
-she remembered them kindly, for there was a sweetness in boys that didn't last long, once they became men. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Even experienced men were apt to flounder badly in crises if they lacked leadership. -- Larry Mcmurtry
There isn't a thought in my head I care to be alone with for more than five minutes. -- Larry Mcmurtry
I think we spent our best years fighting on the wrong side. -- Larry Mcmurtry
they might last another year or two, -- Larry Mcmurtry
Perhaps as he grew older he would learn to trust mysteries and not fear them. -- Larry Mcmurtry
Of course she teased the girls, but it was not the same as having a grown man to work <>ong>onong> - she had often felt like pinching Bob for being so stolid. July was no better - in fact, he and Bob were cut from the same mold, a str<>ong>onong>g but unimaginative mold. -- Larry Mcmurtry