Quotes by Larry McMurtry

“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 th...”

“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 ...”

“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 havi...”

“Who asked them dern pigs?” he said. “I guess they tracked us,” Augustus said. “They’re enterprising pigs.”

“Jake, you’re a dern grasshopper,” Augustus said. “You ride in yesterday talking Montana, and today you’re talking California.”

“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 i...”

“The best to do with a death was to move on from it.”

“I won't tolerate vanity in a man, though I will in a woman.”

“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 chaparra...”

“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?”

“There seem to be no way he could stop anything that was happening, although it all felt wrong.”

“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.”

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

“A woman's love is like the morning dew. It's just as likely to settle on a horse turd as a rose.”

“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...”

“We choose our lovers for their flaws, you know, Mel said. People would be bored shitless if they had to love only the good in someone they care about.”

“Pat, did they get you for the embezzling? Harmony asked.”

“That, and the fact that I got stopped with a few pills in my car, Pat said. Seventeen thousand pills, to be exact.”