The Western Star Quotes

“If you’re looking at the weather, it’s shitty, with a chance of shittier.”
― Craig Johnson, The Western Star

“Trees teach us patience, but grass teaches us persistence.”
― Craig Johnson, The Western Star

“He swelled into the piece, his hand flat-hatting across the keyboard and thundering the lower notes like a trip-hammer. Finishing what I assumed was the first portion of the piece, he turned to look at me with his sad eyes. “Personally, I think it’s a masterpiece.” We sat there smiling at each other until we became aware of the silence and looked up once again to find the onlookers dumbstruck. I leaned his way and spoke in a low voice. “Maybe not a highbrow crowd.” Leeland immediately launched into a jazzy blues version of “This Train.” “Boy howdy.”
― Craig Johnson, The Western Star

“Do you know what I really do for a living, Walt?” “Run the state?” “I make deals. That’s what governing is—giving a little, getting a little.”
― Craig Johnson, The Western Star

“You want to know what I learned in Vietnam? I learned that if you’re lucky, I mean really lucky, you find the one thing you want in life and then you go after it; you give up everything else because all the rest of that stuff really doesn’t matter.”
― Craig Johnson, The Western Star

“In my limited experience with politicians, I have learned that you do not have to be right all the time, but that it is absolutely essential to never appear wrong.”
― Craig Johnson, The Western Star

“Just enough time to make the announcement and answer a few questions.” Vic joined him. “But not too many.” “And then run out the door.” He shook his head. “Flight being the better part of valor in politics.”
― Craig Johnson, The Western Star

“And in case you haven’t noticed, John’s dead, Bobby’s dead, and Martin’s dead, and not a damn thing has changed—people still hang by their tribe. That’s all we are, just a loose coalition of tribes.”
― Craig Johnson, The Western Star

“Perhaps it is for the best.” He sighed. “Trees teach us patience, but grass teaches us persistence.”
― Craig Johnson, The Western Star

“Capital punishment is an extreme sanction that would perhaps have been suitable for this most extreme of crimes, but we make mistakes, and taking another life due to human error is the worst we can do in a society based on law. And even if we get it right, killing the killer is not going to bring back the victims.”
― Craig Johnson, The Western Star

“Lucian took a swallow of the whiskey and licked his lips. “The one brother doesn’t seem too upset about his dead brother, and I’m starting to think this family might be a little bubble off plumb, but I get the address of the shooter and throw Cain in back of the Nash. On the drive over, he’s telling me that he didn’t have anything to do with killing Abel and that he didn’t even help the shooter dump the body—made him do it himself. Took some kind of strange moral stand on that one, I guess.” The old sheriff rolled his eyes. “Well, Ludlow Coontz, the shooter, is this big, dumb-lookin’ bulldogger, two hundred and seventy pounds if he was an ounce, and this is before I had yon man-mountain over there.”
― Craig Johnson, The Western Star

“He called after me. “Well, there ain’t no hurry about nowhere and nothing—they’re always out there waitin’.”
― Craig Johnson, The Western Star

“Justice.” She smiled again, but it quickly faded. “I’m surprised by you, Walt. I never thought of you as . . . as a vengeful person.” “Pharisaic, I think, is the word you’re looking for.”
― Craig Johnson, The Western Star