Larry McMurtry Quote

When any of these billionaires enters the market for rare books, it is little wonder that there is no ceiling. Not long ago a dealer put $500,000 on a copy of Prufrock inscribed by Eliot to the great French poet Paul Valéry. It had been in the Rechler sale, and here it was again, already notched up. Whether the dealer sold it I don’t know. If he did—or if he didn’t—it is a copy that is sure to come into the auction rooms again. Those 946 billionaires have to have something to buy.

Larry McMurtry

When any of these billionaires enters the market for rare books, it is little wonder that there is no ceiling. Not long ago a dealer put $500,000 on a copy of Prufrock inscribed by Eliot to the great French poet Paul Valéry. It had been in the Rechler sale, and here it was again, already notched up. Whether the dealer sold it I don’t know. If he did—or if he didn’t—it is a copy that is sure to come into the auction rooms again. Those 946 billionaires have to have something to buy.

Related Quotes

About Larry McMurtry

Larry Jeff McMurtry (June 3, 1936 – March 25, 2021) was an American novelist, essayist, and screenwriter whose work was predominantly set in either the Old West or contemporary Texas. His novels included Horseman, Pass By (1962), The Last Picture Show (1966), and Terms of Endearment (1975), which were adapted into films. Films adapted from McMurtry's works earned 34 Oscar nominations (13 wins). He was also a prominent book collector and bookseller.
His 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove was adapted into a television miniseries that earned 18 Emmy Award nominations (seven wins). The subsequent three novels in his Lonesome Dove series were adapted as three more miniseries, earning eight more Emmy nominations. McMurtry and co-writer Diana Ossana adapted the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain (2005), which earned eight Academy Award nominations with three wins, including McMurtry and Ossana for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2014, McMurtry received the National Humanities Medal.
In Tracy Daugherty's 2023 biography of McMurtry, the biographer quotes critic Dave Hickey as saying about McMurtry:

"Larry is a writer, and it's kind of like being a critter. If you leave a cow alone, he'll eat grass. If you leave Larry alone, he'll write books. When he's in public, he may say hello and goodbye, but otherwise he is just resting, getting ready to go write."