65+ Cormac McCarthy Quotes From The Renowned American Writer

Cormac McCarthy is an American novelist and playwright.

The stories of his novels revolve around post-apocalyptic and western settings. His work 'The Road' was critically acclaimed and won him a Pulitzer Prize.

Aside from being a novelist and playwright, he is also a screenplay writer. Some of his most famous works include 'Blood Meridian', 'No Country For Old Men' and 'The Road'. His works have been adapted to the big screen in the form of films including the 'No Country For Old Men' adaption winning four Academy Awards including Best Picture.

His most famous work from the aforementioned list is 'Blood Meridian' which brought him fame and huge success. It was on the poll of the 100 best English-language books published between 1925 and 2005 by Time Magazine.

For more related content take a look at ['The Road' quotes] and William Faulkner quotes.

'Blood Meridian' Quotes

Some of the best Cormac McCarthy blood meridian quotes that are absolutely amazing!

1. “Notions of chance and fate are the preoccupations of men engaged in rash undertakings.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

2. “Do you know what happens with people who cannot govern themselves? That's right. Others come in to govern for them.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

3. “War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

4. “The man who believes that the secrets of the world are forever hidden lives in mystery and fear. Superstition will drag him down.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

5. “You can find meanness in the least of creatures, when God made man the devil was at his elbow. A creature that can do anything... Make a machine. And a machine to make the machine. And evil that can run itself a thousand years, no need to tend it.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

6. “It makes no difference what men think of war, said the judge. War endures. As well ask men what they think of stone. War was always here.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

7. “Evil that can run itself a thousand years, no need to tend it.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

8. “That man who sets himself the task of singling out the thread of order from the tapestry will by the decision alone have taken charge of the world.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

9. “It is only by such taking charge that he will effect a way to dictate the terms of his own fate.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

10. “A legion of horribles, hundreds in number, half-naked or clad in costumes attic or biblical or wardrobed out of a fevered dream with the skins of animals and silk finery and pieces of uniform.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

'No Country For Old Men' Quotes

Great quotes from his book 'No Country For Old Men'.

11. “Your life is made out of the days it’s made out of. Nothin else.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

12. “You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

13. “How does a man decide in what order to abandon his life?”

― Cormac McCarthy.

14. “Ever step you take is forever. You cant make it go away. None of it. You understand what I'm sayin?”

― Cormac McCarthy.

15. “You fix what you can fix and you let the rest go. If there ain't nothin to be done about it it ain't even a problem. It's just an aggravation.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

16. “You think yesterday don’t count. But yesterday is all that does count.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

17. “They pretend to themselves they are in control of events where perhaps they are not. ”

― Cormac McCarthy.

18. “Well let’s just take it one day at a time.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

19. “Everything I ever thought has turned out different.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

20. “The papers said it was a crime of passion and he told me there wasn't no passion to it.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

21. “I believe that whatever you do in your life it will get back to you. If you live long enough it will.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

22. “If there's one thing on this planet you don't look like it's a bunch of good luck walkin' around.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

23. “I tried to put things in perspective but sometimes you're just too close to it.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

24. “Somewhere in the world is the most invincible man. Just as somewhere is the most vulnerable.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

25. “Ninety percent of the time. It takes very little to govern good people. Very little. And bad people can't be governed at all. Or if they could I never heard of it.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

'The Road' Quotes

Cormac McCarthy 'The Road' quotes that are awe-inspiring!

26. “Once there were brook trout in the streams in the mountains. On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. Maps and mazes.”

— Cormac McCarthy.

27. “I don't want anybody talking about me. To say where I was or what I said when I was there.”

— Cormac McCarthy.

28. “The right dreams for a man in peril were dreams of peril and all else was the call of languor and of death.”

— Cormac McCarthy.

29. “This is what the good guys do. They keep trying. They don’t give up.”

— Cormac McCarthy.

30. “If you break the little promises, you’ll break big ones.”

— Cormac McCarthy.

31. “Just remember that the things you put into your head are there forever.”

— Cormac McCarthy.

32. “Borrowed time and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it.”

— Cormac McCarthy.

33. “You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget.”

— Cormac McCarthy.

34. “He knew only that his child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God. God never spoke.”

— Cormac McCarthy.

35. “By day the banished sun circles the earth like a grieving mother with a lamp.”

— Cormac McCarthy.

36. “When one has nothing left make ceremonies out of the air and breathe upon them.”

— Cormac McCarthy.

37. “On this road there are no godspoke men. They are gone and I am left and they have taken with them the world.”

— Cormac McCarthy.

38. “The ashes of the late world carried on the bleak and temporal winds to and fro in the void. Carried forth and scattered and carried forth again.”

— Cormac McCarthy.

39. “People were always getting ready for tomorrow. I didn't believe in that. Tomorrow wasn't getting ready for them. It didn't even know they were there.”

— Cormac McCarthy.

'All The Pretty Horses' Quotes

Best quotes from his book 'All The Pretty Horses'.

40. “Between the wish and the thing the world lies waiting.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

41. “You think about all that stuff that can happen to you, he said. There ain't no end to it.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

42. “The truth is what happened. It ain't what come out of somebody's mouth.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

43. “What is constant in history is greed and foolishness and a love of blood, and this is a thing that even God—who knows all that can be known—seems powerless to change.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

44. “I never knowed there was such a place as this. I guess there’s probably every kind of place you can think of.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

45.  “Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

46. “Scared money can’t win and a worried man can’t love.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

47. “The world is quite ruthless in selecting between the dream and the reality, even where we will not.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

48. “In the end we all come to be cured of our sentiments.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

49. “I can normally tell how intelligent a man is by how stupid he thinks I am.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

50. “The world is quite ruthless in selecting between the dream and the reality, even where we will not.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

51. “I don’t know what sort of world she will live in and I have no fixed opinions concerning how she should live in it.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

Cormac McCarthy Quotes From His Other Works

Great quotes from some of his other books.

52. “I got what I needed instead of what I wanted and that's just about the best kind of luck you can have.”

― Cormac McCarthy, ‘Sunset Limited’.

53. “Life is a memory, and then it is nothing.”

― Cormac McCarthy, ‘The Crossing’.

54. “There's a difference between quittin' and knowin' when you're beat.”

Cormac McCarthy, ‘Cities Of The Plain’.

55. “It is personal. That's what an education does. It makes the world personal.”

― Cormac McCarthy, ‘Sunset Limited’.

56. “The martyr who longs for the flames can be no right candidate for them.”

― Cormac McCarthy, ‘Cities Of The Plain’.

57. “I've seen the meanness of humans till I don't know why God ain't put out the sun and gone away.”

― Cormac McCarthy, ‘Outer Dark’.

58. “They say death comes like a thief in the night, where is he? I'll hug his neck.”

― Cormac McCarthy, ‘Suttree’.

59. “I've seen the meanness of humans till I don't know why God ain't put out the sun and gone away.”

― Cormac McCarthy, ‘Outer Dark’.

60. “How surely are the dead beyond death. Death is what the living carry with them. A state of dread, like some uncanny foretaste of a bitter memory. But the dead do not remember and nothingness is not a curse. Far from it.”

― Cormac McCarthy, ‘Suttree’.

61. “If people knew the story of their lives how many would then elect to live them?”

― Cormac McCarthy, ‘The Crossing’.

Cormac McCarthy Personal Life Quotes

Quotes about his personal life and how he started writing.

62. “I don't know why I started writing. I don't know why anybody does it. Maybe they're bored, or failures at something else.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

63. “My perfect day is sitting in a room with some blank paper. That's heaven. That's gold, and anything else is just a waste of time.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

64. “If it doesn’t concern life and death, it’s not interesting.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

65. “I had no money, I mean none. I had run out of toothpaste and I was wondering what to do when I went to the mailbox and there was a free sample.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

66. “I just sit down and write whatever is interesting…  the best things just sort of come out of the blue. It’s a subconscious process. You don’t really know what you’re doing most of the time.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

67. “You spend a lot of time thinking about how to write a book, you probably shouldn't be talking about it, you probably should be doing it.”

― Cormac McCarthy.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Cormac McCarthy quotes then why not take a look at Thomas Pynchon quotes, or Kurt Vonnegut quotes.