"You expect far too much of a first sentence. Think of it as analogous to a good country breakfast: what we want is something simple, but nourishing to the imagination"
About this Quote
Subtext: stop auditioning for greatness on line one. McMurtry is quietly defending the old novelistic contract, where the reader isn’t a skittish consumer to be trapped but a companion you invite in. “Nourishing to the imagination” is a lovely pivot: he’s not arguing for blandness. He’s arguing for sturdiness, for a sentence that opens a space rather than hogging it. The best beginnings don’t announce the author’s cleverness; they promise a world.
Context matters. McMurtry wrote from a tradition of big, inhabited storytelling - frontier myth, regional detail, long social weather. Those novels don’t need fireworks at the door because the payoff is cumulative: character accrues, landscape talks back, irony ripens. His breakfast analogy also carries a cultural stance: plainspoken craft over metropolitan performance. It’s a reminder that momentum beats ornament, and that a first sentence is less a thesis statement than a table being set.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
McMurtry, Larry. (2026, January 16). You expect far too much of a first sentence. Think of it as analogous to a good country breakfast: what we want is something simple, but nourishing to the imagination. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/you-expect-far-too-much-of-a-first-sentence-think-116697/
Chicago Style
McMurtry, Larry. "You expect far too much of a first sentence. Think of it as analogous to a good country breakfast: what we want is something simple, but nourishing to the imagination." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/you-expect-far-too-much-of-a-first-sentence-think-116697/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"You expect far too much of a first sentence. Think of it as analogous to a good country breakfast: what we want is something simple, but nourishing to the imagination." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/you-expect-far-too-much-of-a-first-sentence-think-116697/. Accessed 18 Feb. 2026.
