Top 250 Larry McMurtry Quotes (2026 Update)
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151. “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.”

— Larry McMurtry

152. “Pussyfooting is a vice I have been concerned to avoid.”

— Larry McMurtry

153. “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

154. “Woodrow don’t mention nothing he can keep from mentioning. You couldn’t call him a mentioner.”

— Larry McMurtry

155. “Little by little, the look of the land changes by the men we admire.”

— Larry McMurtry

156. “He was tired of seeing his family only in dreams.”

— Larry McMurtry

157. “That things were mysterious did not make them less valuable.”

— Larry McMurtry

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

— Larry McMurtry

159. “The years would pass like weeks, and loves would pass too, or else grow sour.”

— Larry McMurtry

160. “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

161. “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

162. “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

163. “I’ll pass on snow myself, when I have the option.”

— Larry McMurtry

164. “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

165. “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

166. “It’s his dern laziness,” Call said. “Jake just kind of drifts. Any wind can blow him.”

— Larry McMurtry

167. “But the English are different, and they don’t know how to be other than different.”

— Larry McMurtry

168. “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

169. “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

170. “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.”

— Larry McMurtry

171. “He wondered if all men felt such disappointment when thinking of themselves. He didn’t know.”

— Larry McMurtry

172. “When he walked out into the lots to catch his horse, he felt grown and complete for the first time in his life.”

— Larry McMurtry

173. “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

174. “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

175. “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

176. “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

177. “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

178. “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

179. “Give Call a grievance, however silly, and he would save it like money.”

— Larry McMurtry

180. “A sleeping man would miss the best of the evening, and the moonrise as well.”

— Larry McMurtry

181. “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

182. “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

183. “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

184. “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

185. “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

186. “If you want to be part of a human community you have to suffer fools – patiently, if not gladly – and you must practice civility as best you can.”

— Larry McMurtry

187. “The thing that Buffalo Hump was most grateful for, as he rode into the emptiness, was the knowledge that in the years of his youth and manhood he had drawn the lifeblood of so many enemies. He had been a great killer; it was his way and the way of his people; no one in his tribe had killed so often and so well. The killings were good to remember, as he rode his old horse deeper into the llano, away from all the places where people came.”

— Larry McMurtry

188. “Her own folly amused her: she had once thought of herself as smart – but look at where she was.”

— Larry McMurtry

189. “Besides, though she considered herself his sweetheart, she didn’t consider him her master.”

— Larry McMurtry

190. “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

191. “You don’t get the pint, Woodrow,” Augustus said. “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

192. “We mostly quarreled. He wanted what I wouldn’t give. I wanted what he didn’t have.”

— Larry McMurtry

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

— Larry McMurtry

194. “The woman had won. In the end, it seemed they always did.”

— Larry McMurtry

195. “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

196. “The crimes the law can understand are not the worst crimes.”

— Larry McMurtry

197. “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

198. “It was wearying, trying to adjust to all the paces life required.”

— Larry McMurtry

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

— Larry McMurtry

200. “During the day he had not trusted enough, and had worn himself out with pointless scurryings.”

— Larry McMurtry