Buffalo Jump Blues Quotes

“Tom McGuane, James Welch, A. B. Guthrie, William Kittredge, Ivan Doig, Richard Hugo. A who’s who of Montana writers.”
― Keith McCafferty, Buffalo Jump Blues

“He set his hat beside him on the log and held up a finger. “Impulse control.” He raised a second finger. “Moral reasoning.” He lifted a third. “The ability to love. “These are the three defining characteristics of a caring human being. To the degree that a person possesses these traits, he or she is immunized against the antisocial and psychopathic behaviors that precipitate murder.”
― Keith McCafferty, Buffalo Jump Blues

“He is five pounds if he is an ounce, though as an angler I may not be entirely impervious to the temptation of exaggeration.” “Fishermen are born honest, but they get over it,” Sean said. “My sentiment exactly.”
― Keith McCafferty, Buffalo Jump Blues

“White people don’t want to be seen as having prejudice, so they go out of their way to treat Indians like they’re anyone else. And that’s right about half the time. But there’s a fundamentally different outlook, especially with the older generation. I can help you navigate that. Okay?”
― Keith McCafferty, Buffalo Jump Blues

“I know. We keep missing each other. Misunderstandings and all.” “I could ask about you and Katie.” “There’s skin I can’t touch and a mind I can’t know. Every time could be the last time and maybe already is.” “Love makes philosophers out of all of us.”
― Keith McCafferty, Buffalo Jump Blues

“To me, this isn’t just about John Running Boy. I want to know who drove those buffalo over the cliffs. I want to know who, and I want to know why, and I want to know about the guy who died there. I want the guilty to pay for their sins. There’s a purity in that kind of pursuit. It’s black and white.” He gave a short laugh. “Unlike the rest of life.” Sean stopped himself there, embarrassed that he’d given voice to the code he lived by, something he’d seldom confessed, even to lovers.”
― Keith McCafferty, Buffalo Jump Blues

“That woman who’s with my friend now, she once said that I step into shit even if there’s only one horse in the pasture. She meant it as a compliment, but it’s not like I have a choice. I have to keep going and see if I can step into shit, even if that means getting beat down along the way and losing faith in mankind, which is all the lesson you get out of it sometimes. But if I don’t make the effort, then who will? Maybe nobody will.”
― Keith McCafferty, Buffalo Jump Blues

“A big rainbow trout, for fishermen who don’t catch them very often, is like a fire in the attic. Those who watch the house burn down are peeled from their skins of personality. Their eyes seem stunned, smells are sharper, sounds more insistent. For a time they’ll say anything that comes into their heads, anything at all.”
― Keith McCafferty, Buffalo Jump Blues

“It wasn’t the first time he’d been made aware of his assumptions toward those who were different from him, felt a tickle of fear in his blood that was unwarranted. Nor was it the only time an instant friendship had been kindled under the circumstances.”
― Keith McCafferty, Buffalo Jump Blues

“As he listened, Sean had all but forgotten about the man’s frailty, which was only noticeable in the shaking of the cup. He found that he was both surprised and unsurprised by Campbell’s erudition and eloquence. Sean had knocked on a lot of doors, and the farther he was from centers of population, the more unexpected the result. It was one of the first things that struck him upon moving to Montana.”
― Keith McCafferty, Buffalo Jump Blues