Quotes from Larry McMurtry

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.

People he had known all his life were all around him, but they simply didn't see him.

Now speech had left her; fear took its place.

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, Lonesome Dove

Part of him wanted to remember; part of him needed to forget.

That possibility alone made his quandary more difficult. His wife had left for parts unknown, his deputy was wandering in other parts unknown, and the man he was supposed to catch was in yet other parts unknown. In fact, July felt he had reached a point in his life where virtually nothing was known.

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.

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.

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.

The man turned his blue eyes on July for a moment. 'Why, son, I'm fine,' he said. 'You're the one in trouble. I can see you carry a weight on your heart. You're hurrying along to do something you may not want to do. I see by your badge that you're a lawman. But the crimes the law can understand are not the worst crimes. I have often sinned worse than the murderer, and yet I try to live in virtue.

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.

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

And yet death was not something you could ignore. It had its weight. It was a dead man lying upstairs, not a man who was sick. It seemed to her she had better not form the practice of ignoring death. If she tried it, death would find a way to answer back—it would take another of her loved ones, to remind her to respect it.

It's happiness to see you.

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.

Me and Call have always liked to get where we started for, even if it don't make a damn bit of sense.

Woodrow don't mention nothing he can keep from mentioning. You couldn't call him a mentioner.

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.

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.

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.

It's very peculiar, the situations life presents one with, Father Geoff reflected.

He gathers information that we can't see, and puts it together.

The sensible way, which he had pursued once or twice in his life, had always proved boring, usually within a few days.

In fact, July felt he had reached a point in his life where virtually nothing was known.