Mr. Texas Quotes

“By the end of dinner, Sonny had acquired a list of demands. “This is going to be my life, I guess,” he said to Lola on the way home. “Everybody thinks they can just tell me what they want and I better get it for them.” “Isn’t that the way politics is supposed to work?” Sonny rarely took a stab at philosophy, but he cogitated on this for a bit. “I think everybody has an idea of a perfect world,” he said finally. “It’s like, things would be great if the government never looked over our shoulders and we could smoke grass and carry our guns and walk around without shoes. Or, rich people should be locked up and then the government could pay for all your needs. The weird thing is, everybody’s perfect world is different. I think politics is about trying to make the world a little more perfect for most of us.”
― Lawrence Wright, Mr. Texas

“A good man wants to win clean. But you never win clean, Sonny. You always give up something. You just gotta make sure it ain’t more important than what you win.”
― Lawrence Wright, Mr. Texas

“We all have to face the final moments. I thought it would take courage, but the truth is you just sit around and wait. Like being in the bus station. And you wonder, ‘What’s it all for?’ ”
― Lawrence Wright, Mr. Texas

“Once again, the stars mocked him. Out here you were fully aware of the speckness of your existence in the universe, the majesty of eternal creation compared with the swift and insignificant transit of one such as yourself. Nothing in your life made any difference in the countenance of the heavens bearing down on you, no more than the mountains and the cows and the rattlesnakes.”
― Lawrence Wright, Mr. Texas

“As he flew, Sonny listened to an old Tony Robbins motivational tape. "Everything on Earth has a purpose, and you do, too," Tony was saying. "Once you declare your intention you will find your life's true meaning.”
― Lawrence Wright, Mr. Texas

“Sonny's race made her understand that government could be a tool to better people's lives instead of simply serving as a box to put half your money in.”
― Lawrence Wright, Mr. Texas

“The professor said that, if the history of the Earth were represented as a single year, humans appeared on the planet only in the last hour of creation, and humans didn't arrive in Texas until the last minute of the last hour.”
― Lawrence Wright, Mr. Texas: A novel

“There’s a natural process called osmosis. You take your treated water, which is practically black with petroleum molecules and full of heavy metals, thick as molasses, then push it through a membrane that filters out the noxious particles. It’s not drinking-water level, they haven’t got there yet. But the EPA has said that it’s good enough to irrigate crops. They’ve allowed discharges into the Allegheny River. Imagine, instead of burying the water, we can reuse it. We can fill our rivers with it.”
― Lawrence Wright, Mr. Texas

“Despite the solitary existence in what nearly everyone would describe as the middle of nowhere, Lola still connected with the stark majesty that surrounded her, especially in the late afternoon when the sky softened and a rosy glow lined the horizon. She had an early-evening ritual of walking the fence line with a margarita while taking in the Earth’s majestic transition into night. Sometimes the sunsets were so glorious she had to catch her breath.”
― Lawrence Wright, Mr. Texas

“And with that, the legend of Sonny Lamb was born.”
― Lawrence Wright, Mr. Texas

“This is un-Texan.” Carl visibly wilted. There was no greater condemnation.”
― Lawrence Wright, Mr. Texas

“He had known Big Bob since they’d been elected to the House the same year, decades before. Never was there a lawmaker so gifted, nor one who loved Texas more deeply. Bob pulled the public schools and hospitals in the state out of the discard pile where previous legislatures had left them. He passed production tax credits for renewable energy, which is why Texas led the nation in wind power.”
― Lawrence Wright, Mr. Texas

“Sir, you know I’m a rancher. Most of the people I represent are like me, struggling to make cows grow in what’s turning into a desert. The country out there is all burnt up from grass fires. Lot of times you can’t breathe because of the dust. Sometimes you can’t even see. We’re losing the battle.” “Climate change,” the speaker said. “Well, yeah. I didn’t think you were supposed to say that.” “What we say in private is between us. We all know what’s up. TXOGA has us by the nuts,” the speaker said, referencing the Texas Oil and Gas Association, the one lobby that had more influence than L. D. Sparks. “The question is what do you”—here he pointed at Sonny—“propose to do about it?” “Hold still, please,” the sculptor fussed. “Desalination,” Sonny said, expecting the usual eye roll. Instead, the speaker said, “Tell me about it.”
― Lawrence Wright, Mr. Texas

“Before the meeting, Wanda had schooled Sonny on Big Bob, whom she had known for decades. “He’s not a kind man, but he’s not evil,” she said. “He’ll do what he must to get what he wants, and he doesn’t mind leaving blood on the floor. His goals are noble, even if his methods sometimes border on Mafia tactics. Cross him and he’ll never forget or forgive. You’ll die of fright, believe me. He has one giant redeeming quality: he loves Texas.”
― Lawrence Wright, Mr. Texas

“You’re gonna feel a lot of love, but it’s all bullshit. They don’t love you, they love your vote.”
― Lawrence Wright, Mr. Texas

“Evenin’ ma’am, you gotta forgive me. I’m just a country boy. I love the three Bs—the Bible, boobs, and barbeque.”
― Lawrence Wright, Mr. Texas

“L.D., I need somebody with experience, not just, you know.” “Our office provides all the guidance you need. We write the bills, suggest how to vote, anything you desire. That’s what lobbyists do.”
― Lawrence Wright, Mr. Texas

“As he got closer to Fort Davis, he spotted the ranchettes with outbuildings sporting retractable roofs. This area was filling up with amateur astronomers, drawn to the dark sky and the nearby McDonald Observatory.”
― Lawrence Wright, Mr. Texas

“By the end of dinner, Sonny had acquired a list of demands. “This is going to be my life, I guess,” he said to Lola on the way home. “Everybody thinks they can just tell me what they want and I better get it for them.” “Isn’t that the way politics is supposed to work?” Sonny rarely took a stab at philosophy, but he cogitated on this for a bit. “I think everybody has an idea of a perfect world,”
― Lawrence Wright, Mr. Texas

“Californians were pouring into the state, most of them tax refugees, but they were complicating the political scene with their well-funded, high-tech left-libertarianism.”
― Lawrence Wright, Mr. Texas

“The question was a garrote around Valerie’s neck. The Pats would tighten their grip until her life in politics was extinguished. And all for the entertainment of their listeners, not because they really cared. About anything. It was good fun.”
― Lawrence Wright, Mr. Texas

“But the Pats weren’t having it. There was a clear narrative in their minds and it didn’t need to get conflated with the distracting verities of real life.”
― Lawrence Wright, Mr. Texas

“We ask ourselves, ‘Who is this man?’ And we imagine that he is a legend, a myth, like a god among us. Strong. Beautiful. Brave. Man against nature. These are the qualities we award him—Texas qualities. So we title this reel ‘Mr. Texas.’ This is the image we convey to your voters.”
― Lawrence Wright, Mr. Texas

“He became a volunteer fireman,” the announcer continued, approaching the climax of the ad, “protecting the lives and property of his neighbors.”
― Lawrence Wright, Mr. Texas

“As chief of the volunteer force, Sonny raced his pickup across the field to intercept the pump truck, which was doing no good by spraying the back of the fire. Sonny honked until he got the attention of the driver, Frank Acosta, who looked at Sonny as if he had no idea where he was. Lightning danced all around, landing like mortar shells, reminding Sonny of Iraq, but he couldn’t think about that now. He had learned that much from war, you set some thoughts aside to be pondered when you were alone and safe. Or maybe you never revisited those thoughts at all, you just put them in a casket and buried them, along with friends now gone. The job was to live.”
― Lawrence Wright, Mr. Texas

“While Sonny loaded the truck with shovels and gunny sacks, along with gloves, jackets, and helmets—the basics—Lola phoned the other members of the local volunteer fire department. They were already awake because of the storm. With no other fire department to call on out here, neighbors had to take care of each other. Grass was money, especially now, but in this drought it was also explosively combustible. The month before there had been a fire on the other side of the mountains that shot up a plume like a hydrogen bomb. Wildfires were finishing off the West.”
― Lawrence Wright, Mr. Texas

“And how is it that anybody steps up and says he’s running for office, he’s the man for the job, who thinks like that? But once the idea has crept into your mind, then why not? Who else? People emerge. Ordinary citizens, something triggers them to stand in front of the pack and say, It’s me. And then people say yes to you, or no to you, but how can you know who you are in their eyes unless you stand up?”
― Lawrence Wright, Mr. Texas