Quotes from Larry McMurtry

I'm tired of justice, ain't you?

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.

Ever since he was a little boy, he had always tried to make things sound better than they actually were.

He and Augustus had discussed the question of leadership many times. "It ain't complicated," Augustus maintained. "Most men doubt their own abilities. You don't. It's no wonder they want to keep you around. It keeps them from having to worry about failure all the time.

Somewhere along the Rio Concho, he had stopped feeling that he lived in a world where ledgers mattered.

I'll pass on snow myself, when I have the option.

He was two or three steps away from her and for a moment they did not know how to get to one another.

With both the Indian and the women he was always left with the feeling that, without meaning to, he had made some kind of mistake.

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.

The reason I'm so crazy is because nobody cares anything about me. I don't guess there's anybody I care much about, either. It's my own fault, though - I haven't had the guts to try and do anything about it.

Loneliness is like ice. After you've been lonely long enough you don't even realize you're cold, but you are.

could put no weight on the wounded ankle at

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.

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.

Clara said. "Do your best, if you happen to love a fool. You'll have my sympathy. Some folks will preach that it's a woman's duty never to quit, once you make a bond with a man. I say that's folly. A bond has to work two ways. If a man don't hold up his end, there comes a time to quit.

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.

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.

He had ridden his horse into the saloon on a dare from a whore – his practice was always to accept dares; it spiced life up a little.

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.

Basically Jake just dreamed his way through life and somehow got by with it.

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 ...

You can scare off a lot of cowboys just by looking mean, I guess.

Don't be reviling yourself. None of us is such fine judges of what to do.

Billy the Kid shooting all those people over in New Mexico has made gunfighting real popular with the public.