He stood at the window of the empty cafe and watched the activites in the square and he said that it was good that God kept the truths of life from the young as they were starting out or else they'd have no heart to start at all. Cormac McCarthy More Quotes by Cormac McCarthy More Quotes From Cormac McCarthy When the shooting starts would you rather be armed or legal? Cormac McCarthy shooting and for a moment he held out his hands as if to steady himself or as if to bless the ground there or perhaps as if to slow the world that was rushing away and seemed to care nothing for the old or the young or rich or poor or dark or pale or he or she. Nothing for their struggles, nothing for their names. Nothing for the living or the dead. Cormac McCarthy struggle dark hands So everything is necessary. Every least thing. This is the hard lesson. Nothing can be dispensed with. Nothing despised. Because the seams are hid from us, you see. The joinery. The way in which the world is made. We have no way to know what could be taken away. What omitted. We have no way to tell what might stand and what might fall. Cormac McCarthy taken world fall Even if what you're working on doesn't go anywhere, it will help you with the next thing you're doing. Make yourself available for something to happen. Give it a shot. Cormac McCarthy next work giving If you think about some of the things that are being talked about by thoughtful, intelligent scientists, you realize that in 100 years the human race won't even be recognizable. Cormac McCarthy thoughtful intelligent thinking People apparently only read mystery stories of any length. With mysteries, the longer the better, and people will read any damn thing. But the indulgent, 800-page books that were written a hundred years ago are just not going to be written anymore, and people need to get used to that. Cormac McCarthy book people years Pain for the old was no longer a surprise. Cormac McCarthy surprise pain I don't know what of our culture is going to survive, or if we survive. If you look at the Greek plays, they're really good. And there's just a handful of them. Well, how good would they be if there were 2,500 of them? But that's the future looking back at us. Anything you can think of, there's going to be millions of them. Just the sheer number of things will devalue them. I don't care whether it's art, literature, poetry or drama, whatever. The sheer volume of it will wash it out. I mean, if you had thousands of Greek plays to read, would they be that good? I don't think so. Cormac McCarthy drama mean art I remember in grammar school the teacher asked if anyone had any hobbies. I was the only one with any hobbies and I had every hobby there was... name anything, no matter how esoteric. I could have given everyone a hobby and still had 40 or 50 to take home. Cormac McCarthy home teacher children ... a man leaves much when he leaves his own country. Cormac McCarthy men country travel The names of the cerros and the sierras and the deserts exist only on maps. We name them that we do not lose our way. Yet it was because the way was lost to us already that we have made those names. The world cannot be lost. We are the ones. And it is because these names and these coordinates are our own naming that they cannot save us. They cannot find for us the way again. Cormac McCarthy desert names world War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner. Cormac McCarthy trade men war It had ceased raining in the night and he walked out on the road and called for the dog. He called and called. Standing in that inexplicable darkness. Where there was no sound anywhere save only the wind. After a while he sat in the road. He took off his hat and placed it on the tarmac before him and he bowed his head and held his face in his hands and wept. He sat there for a long time and after a while the east did gray and after a while the right and godmade sun did rise, once again, for all and without distinction. Cormac McCarthy dog rain night The point is there ain't no point. Cormac McCarthy no-point existentialism nihilism in dreams it is often the case that the greatest extravagances seem bereft of their power to astonish and the most improbable chimeras seem commonplace. Cormac McCarthy extravagance cases dream In the end we all come to be cured of our sentiments. Cormac McCarthy all-the-pretty-horses sentiments ends If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow Cormac McCarthy government law missing Creedless shells of men tottering down the causeways like migrants in a feverland. Cormac McCarthy migrants shells men Nor does God whisper through the trees. His voice is not to be mistaken. When men hear it they fall to their knees and their souls are riven and they cry out to Him and there is no fear but only wildness of heart that springs from such longing. Cormac McCarthy heart spring fall The martyr who longs for the flames can be no right candidate for them. Cormac McCarthy martyr candidates flames