54 Quotes & Sayings By Larry Mcmurtry

Larry McMurtry is an award-winning novelist, screenwriter, essayist, and film director. His writing has been translated into 10 foreign languages. He is the author of the novel Lonesome Dove, which was made into a feature film in 1989. He also adapted it into a television miniseries in 1994 Read more

In 2005, McMurtry wrote The Last Picture Show, the final book in his Larry McMurtry Trilogy. The trilogy was adapted into a feature film of the same name by Peter Bogdanovich in 1971. He was also the writer for the screenplay for the movie "Brokeback Mountain".

Great readers (are) those who know early that there is...
1
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
2
They probably think the sun won't come up unless you're there to allow it. Larry McMurtry
3
I sing about life. I am happy, but life is sad. Larry McMurtry
4
It was something, what must go through men's mind where women were concerned, to cause them to behave so strangely. Larry McMurtry
5
The thought cross 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
6
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
7
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
8
Watching them, Harmony felt too shaken to take a step. Eddie and Sheba were young; but she herself had become old. Even if she wasn’t particularly old if you just counted years, the fact was years were no way to count. Happenings were the way to count, the big happening that separated her from youth or even middle age was the death of her daughter, Pepper. That death made her realize that life, once you got around to producing children, was no longer about being pretty or having boyfriends or making money — it was about protecting children; getting them raised to the point where they could try life as adults. It didn’t have to be just children that come out of your body, either. It could be anyone young who needed something you had to give. Some grown men were children; some grown women, too. Harmony knew that she had spent a good part of her life, taking care of just such men. But now that she felt old she didn’t think she wanted to spend much more of her energy protecting men who had had a good chance to grow up, but had blown it. If she never had another boyfriend — something she had been worrying about, on the plane — it might be a little dull in some areas, like sexual areas, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world. What would be the end of the world would be to let some little girl like Sheba get in the car with a bad man who would make a U-turn across the street and kill her right there in front of the pay phones, where pimps and crack dealers were making their calls. Larry McMurtry
9
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
10
She sighed. Men were a pain. Larry McMurtry
11
He liked to get off by himself, a mile or so from camp, and listen to the country, not the men. Larry McMurtry
12
It was something he had always done - moved apart, so he could be alone and think things or a little. Larry McMurtry
13
He ought to let the past keep its glow and not try to mix it with what he had in the present. Larry McMurtry
14
It's funny, leaving a place, ain't it?" he said. "You never do know when you'll get back. Larry McMurtry
15
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
16
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
17
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
18
The crimes the law can understand are not the worst crimes. Larry McMurtry
19
She had a beautiful face, a beautiful body, but also a distance in her such as he had never met a woman. Larry McMurtry
20
It was a weakness, but he could not bear to disappoint women, even if it was ultimately for their own good. Larry McMurtry
21
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
22
Could any woman live every day with that level of masculinity? Larry McMurtry
23
It's happiness to see you. Larry McMurtry
24
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
25
Once started, love couldn't easily be stopped. Larry McMurtry
26
The years would pass like weeks, and loves would pass too, or else grow sour. Larry McMurtry
27
How about a kiss?”“ Are you man enough to try?” she asked. Larry McMurtry
28
It doesn't do to sacrifice for people unless they want you to. Larry McMurtry
29
A sleeping man would miss the best of the evening, and the moonrise as well. Larry McMurtry
30
A man that sleeps all night wastes too much of life. Larry McMurtry
31
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
32
Once, when I was about ten, we were approaching the ranch after veering north to look at some pasturage when we saw a small barefoot boy racing along the hot road with terror in his face. My father just managed to stop him. Though incoherent with fear, the boy managed to inform us that his little brother had just drowned in the horse trough. My father grabbed the boy and we went racing up to the farmhouse, where the anguished mother, the drowned child in her arms, was sobbing, crying out in German, and rocking in a rocking chair. Fortunately the boy was not quite dead. My father managed to get him away from his mother long enough to stretch him out on the porch and squeeze the water out of him. In a while the boy began to belch dirty fluids and then to breathe again. The crisis past, we went on home. The graceful German mother brought my father jars of her best sauerkraut for many, many years. Larry McMurtry
33
You probably drink too much. If you hand me that bottle, I'll reduce your temptations. --Augustus "Gus" McCrae Larry McMurtry
34
Don't be trying to give back pain for pain... You can't get even measures in business like this. Larry McMurtry
35
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
36
But, if one cuts more deeply, the lonesome dove is Newt, a lonely teenager who is the unacknowledged son of Captain Call and a kindly whore named Maggie, who is now dead. So the central theme of the novel is not the stocking of Montana but unacknowledged paternity. All of the Hat Creek Outfit, including particularly Augustus McCrae, want Call to accept the boy as his son. Larry McMurtry
37
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
38
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
39
Who asked them dern pigs?” he said. “I guess they tracked us, ” Augustus said. “They’re enterprising pigs. Larry McMurtry
40
Jake, you’re a dern grasshopper, ” Augustus said. “You ride in yesterday talking Montana, and today you’re talking California. Larry McMurtry
41
One day Augustus asked Newt to ride along with him, much to Newt’s surprise. In the morning they saw a grizzly, but the bear was far upwind and didn’t scent them. It was a beautiful day–no clouds in the sky. Augustus rode with his big rifle propped across the saddle–he was in the highest of spirits. They rode ahead of the herd some fifteen miles or more, and yet when they stopped to look back they could still see the cattle, tiny black dots in the middle of the plain, with the southern horizon still far behind them. Larry McMurtry
42
The best to do with a death was to move on from it. Larry McMurtry
43
I won't tolerate vanity in a man, though I will in a woman. Larry McMurtry
44
The eastern sky was red as coals in a forge, lighting up the flats along the river. Dew had wet the million needles of the chaparral, and when the rim of the sun edged over the horizon the chaparral seemed to be spotted with diamonds. A bush in the little backyard was filled with the little rainbows as the sun touched the dew. Larry McMurtry
45
The eastern sky was red as coals in a forge, lighting up the flats along the river. Dew had wet the million needles of the chaparral, and when the rim of the sun edged over the horizon the chaparral seemed to be spotted with diamonds. A bush in the backyard was filled with little rainbows as the sun touched the dew. It was tribute enough to sunup that it could make even chaparral bushes look beautiful, Augustus thought, and he watched the process happily, knowing it would only last a few minutes. The sun spread reddish-gold light through the shining bushes, among which a few goats wandered, bleating. Even when the sun rose above the low bluffs to the south, a layer of light lingered for a bit at the level of the chaparral, as if independent of its source. The the sun lifted clear, like an immense coin. The dew quickly died, and the light that filled the bushes like red dirt dispersed, leaving clear, slightly bluish air. It was good reading light by then, so Augustus applied himself for a few minutes to the Prophets. He was not overly religious, but he did consider himself a fair prophet and liked to study the styles of his predecessors. They were mostly too long-winded, in his view, and he made no effort to read them verse for verse–he just had a look here and there, while the biscuits were browning. Larry McMurtry
46
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
47
There seem to be no way he could stop anything that was happening, although it all felt wrong. Larry McMurtry
48
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
49
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
50
But the English are different, and they don’t know how to be other than different. Larry McMurtry
51
Little by little, the look of the land changes by the men we admire. Larry McMurtry
52
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
53
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