I once owned a collection of 77 novels that won the Pulitzer. The only good novel of the bunch was The Grapes of Wrath. Larry McMurtry More Quotes by Larry McMurtry More Quotes From Larry McMurtry Only a rank degenerate would drive 1,500 miles across Texas without eating a chicken fried steak. Larry McMurtry degenerates texas eating Backward is just not a natural direction for Americans to look - historical ignorance remains a national characteristic. Larry McMurtry historical ignorance looks For the past several centuries the bonding power of the family dinner table has been one of the few constants, and now it's binding no more. The potency of the media is now stronger than that of the family. The wonder is that families still exist at all, since the forces of modern life mainly all pull people away from a family centered way of life. Larry McMurtry media people past People would be bored shitless if they had to love only the good in someone they care about. Larry McMurtry bored would-be people If you wait, all that happens is that you get older. Larry McMurtry motorcycle waiting life I'm glad I've been wrong enough to keep in practice. . . You can't avoid it, you've got to learn to handle it. If you only come face to face with your own mistakes once or twice in your life it's bound to be extra painful. I face mine every day--that way they ain't usually much worse than a dry shave. Larry McMurtry dry practice mistake Uva uvum vivendo varia fit Larry McMurtry fit Nothing good ever comes without a price. Larry McMurtry It's a fine world, though rich in hardships at times. Larry McMurtry rich hardship world A woman's love is like the morning dew. It's just as likely to settle on a horse turd as a rose. Larry McMurtry horse morning love-is Obviously, where art has it over life is in the matter of editing. Life can be seen to suffer from a drastic lack of editing. It stops too quick, or else it goes on too long. Worse, its pacing is erratic. Some chapters are little more than a few sentences in length, while others stretch into volumes. Life, for all its raw talent, has little sense of structure. It creates amazing textures, but it can't be counted on for snappy beginnings or good endings either. Indeed, in many cases no ending is provided at all. Larry McMurtry editing life art You expect far too much of a first sentence. Think of it as analagous to a good country breakfast: what we want is something simple, but nourishing to the imagination. Hold the philosophy, hold the adjectives, just give us a plain subject and verb and perhaps a wholesome, nonfattening adverb or two. Larry McMurtry simple philosophy country Incompetents invariably make trouble for people other than themselves. Larry McMurtry intelligence trouble people Writing is a form of herding. I herd words into little paragraph-like clusters. Larry McMurtry herds writing littles From him to the stars, in all directions, there was only silence and emptiness. Larry McMurtry emptiness silence stars Yesterday's gone on down the river and you can't get it back. Larry McMurtry gone yesterday rivers If you want one thing too much it’s likely to be a disappointment. The healthy way is to learn to like the everyday things, like soft beds and buttermilk—and feisty gentlemen. Larry McMurtry everyday-things healthy disappointment Call listened with amusement--not that the incident hadn't been terrible. Being decapitated was a grisly fate, whether you were a Yankee or not. But then, amusing things happened in battle, as they did in the rest of life. Some of the funniest things he had ever witnessed had occurred during battles. He had always found it more satisfying to laugh on a battlefield than anywhere else, for if you lived to laugh on a battlefield, you could feel you had earned the laugh. But if you just laughed in a saloon, or at a social, the laugh didn't reach deep. Larry McMurtry rest-of-life fate yankees A bookman’s love of books is a love of books, not merely of the information in them. Larry McMurtry information book There isn't a thought in my head I care to be alone with for more than five minutes. Larry McMurtry five minutes care
