Charles Portis quotes

I would not put a thief in my mouth to steal my brains. (Charles Portis)

I didn't care for beat reporting, covering the same thing day after day - short attention span.

Charles Portis

Nothing I like to do pays well.

Charles Portis

Lookin' back is a bad habit.

Charles Portis

As he drank, little brown drops of coffee clung to his mustache like dew. Men will live like billy goats if they are let alone.

Charles Portis

But I had not the strength nor the inclination to bandy words with a drunkard. What have you done when you have bested a fool?

Charles Portis

If you want anything done right you will have to see to it yourself every time.

Charles Portis

The wicked flee when none pursueth.

Charles Portis

We must each of us bear our own misfortunes.

Charles Portis

I always go backwards when I am backing up.

Charles Portis

I have known some horses and a good many more pigs who I believe harbored evil intent in their hearts. I will go further and say all cats are wicked, though often useful. Who has not seen Satan in their sly faces? (Charles Portis)

Listen, here's what I'd like to do: I'd like to live in a trailer and play records all night.

Charles Portis

You must pay for everything in this world one way and another. There is nothing free except the Grace of God. You cannot earn that or deserve it.

Charles Portis

Time just gets away from us.

Charles Portis

My Master of Arts degree means nothing at all to these monkeys and I have come to share their indifference.

Charles Portis

In the Anthropology Club, as I understood it, you were permitted, if not required, to despise only one thing, and that was your own culture, that of the West.

Charles Portis

Nothing is too long or too short either if you have a true and interesting tale and what I call a "graphic" writing style combined with educational aims.

Charles Portis

I know what they said even if they would not say it to my face. People love to talk. They love to slander you if you have any substance.

Charles Portis

People do not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father's blood but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen every day. I was just fourteen years of age when a coward going by the name Tom Chaney shot my father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robbed him of his life and his horse and $150 in cash money plus two California gold pieces that he carried in his trouser band.

Charles Portis

There is no knowing what is in a man's heart.

Charles Portis

Mexican homes as a rule are closed off to the world by high blank walls of yellowish masonry, topped with broken glass to discourage escaladores, or climbing burglars. The gardens and fountains and other delights are hidden, as in an Arab city. (Charles Portis)

It was old President Diaz who said that nothing ever happens in Mexico until it happens. Things rock along from day to day, and then all at once you are caught up in a rush of unforeseen events.

Charles Portis

You do not think much of me, do you, Cogburn? I don't think about you at all when your mouth is closed.

Charles Portis

A reporter from 'The Times' wanted to arm-wrestle, and as I recall, he kept challenging me. So we went at it, and there was a pop. His arm broke. Very strange. He went into a kind of swoon.

Charles Portis