All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers Quotes

“He said there were going to be literary parties. I tried to imagine a literary party and was unable to. It was a very abstract effort, like trying to imagine a triangle or a cube. Wearing a suit made me feel even more abstract. I had a mental picture of me inside my suit, inside a party, inside a building, inside San Francisco. I didn't know what I was doing, inside so many things that were unlike me.”
― Larry McMurtry, All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers

“You ought to take more chances," I said.
"I took too many earlier," she said. "I'm sorry.”
― Larry McMurtry, All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers

“Razzy was insulting me silently somehow.”
― Larry McMurtry, All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers

“One thing we agreed on was that love was something there was no point in asking for. It was either simple or impossible. If you had to ask for it, it just meant it was impossible.”
― Larry McMurtry, All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers

“Once I had been amazed at how abruptly things could change, but what was just as amazing was how long they could go without really changing.”
― Larry McMurtry, All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers: A Novel

“What’s that?” Mr. Bynum said. He leaned over me, fists doubled up.
“Vagina, fallopian tube, penis, scrotum,” I said.
It took them both aback. I meant for it to.
“That ain’t what you said,” Mr. Bynum said. But I had him slightly off guard.
“No sir,” I said. “What I said to Mrs. Bynum was cunt and prick and fuck and shit.” I pronounced each word very distinctly. The Bynums were silent. The encounter had taken a bewildering turn. I gave them no time to regroup.
“I’m telling you all my favorite words,” I said. “Anus, penis, semen, nipple, clitoris, pubic hair. I can say them louder,” I said. “I can say them faster. Fuck screw ball. Fuck – screw – ball. Fuck screw ball fuck screw ball.”
I got to my knees. I spoke louder. “Lick suck lick suck lick suck,” I said. The Bynums were staring. My hair was wild, I was wet and muddy, I was rising from the grass chanting terrible words. I rose, I chanted.
“Titillate, masturbate, cunnilingus,” I said. “Cunt prick fuck shit.”
I got a little louder as I walked toward Mrs. Bynum.
“Cunt vagina cunt vagina cunt vagina cunt,” I said. I turned toward Mr. Bynum. “Nipple nipple nipple nipple,” I said. I was chanting. I was getting louder. They looked scared. I had them backing up.
“You maniac!” Mrs. Bynum said. Her voice wasn’t steady anymore. “I want to go in, Lloyd.”
They turned and left, but I didn’t stop. I followed them up the sidewalk, weaving from side to side and chanting “Cunt vagina cunt vagina cunt vagina cunt” as if it were a football cheer. Mr. Bynum took Mrs. Bynum’s arm and hurried her on. They stopped at the hospital door and looked back at me with expressions of complete confusion on their faces. We looked at one another. I stopped the obscenities.
“Sexual intercourse,” I said quietly. They knew my weapons. They merely stared. Finally they went inside.”
― Larry McMurtry, All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers

“She was drawing again. When she drew her face became beautiful. I tried to kiss her but she ducked. While I watched she did a little sketch of my novel being given to the sea. I had just dropped it off the Golden Gate Bridge and a scholarly-looking sea gull was trying to read it as it fluttered down into the bay.”
― Larry McMurtry, All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers: A Novel

“Would it scare you if I asked you to supper?” I said. “I don’t know anyone in L.A.” Jill had a way of straightening her head suddenly so that I was forced to look her full in the face. She did it when I asked her to supper. I had never in my life met such a direct look, in such an uncompromisingly honest face. Her eyes weren’t blank, like Sally’s. They were clear and gray and intelligent. “I’m glad you said supper,” she said. “No one’s ever asked me to supper before. Guys here ask you to dinner, which means they buy you a cheap steak and then try to fuck you before you even get it digested. Let’s go to supper.”
― Larry McMurtry, All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers: A Novel

“I'd ask you to come with me down there, but it wouldn't work there either,' Jill said. 'I don't want to love anybody. I don't want to repress you out of existence, either. I'm not a woman anymore, I'm just an artist. All I can do is draw. It'll happen to you if you don't get a girl who'll sleep with you. You'll wake up someday and you'll just be a writer. I'm not worth it. Nobody's worth it. You'd be better off staying a man.”
― Larry McMurtry, All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers

“I looked at my pages under the flashlight. They looked odd. Pages. Words. Black marks on paper. They didn't have eyes, or bodies. They weren't people. I didn't know why I put marks on paper. It was a dull thing to do. There must be livelier things to do. I remembered the river books I had read. There must be thousands of rivers to see. Seeing the flowing of rivers would be more interesting than making black marks on paper. The marks didn't have faces, and I had forgotten the faces that had been in my mind when I wrote them. Jill had a face. Emma had a face. My words didn't. They didn't flow like rivers, either. They had no little towns on their banks - little towns full of whores, people, goats. I didn't know what I was doing, spending so much time with paper. Looking at my novel by flashlight made me unhappy. Undoubtedly it was no good. It didn't look at all good. Probably I had just written it to take my mind off my various problems. I remembered Jill's anger when she said I had been doing what I really wanted to do, when I wrote. Writing instead of coping. Maybe she was right. It was an awful thought. On the other hand, she was wrong. I would rather have had her with me than to write all the books I would ever write if I lived to be as old as Uncle L and won every prize there was to win and became even more serious than Thomas Mann, if such a thing were possible. I would rather have Jill.”
― Larry McMurtry, All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers

“Please don't marry for a while."

"You mean until I get smarter?"

She had gone down to the sidewalk. "Oh Danny, nobody cares about that," she said, with a crooked smile.”
― Larry McMurtry, All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers

“to the”
― Larry McMurtry, All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers: A Novel

“You should bring your wife here, she said. There are a lot of guys around. Somebody would take her away from you and when you got over it you'd be a lot happier.”
― Larry McMurtry, All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers

“figured Godwin”
― Larry McMurtry, All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers