Wyatt Earp Quotes

“Sadie was at his side when the old desire to leave everything behind rose up in him again.

“Suppose . . .” he began. “Suppose . . .”

Then he moved on, one last time.”
― Mary Doria Russell, Epitaph

“Wyatt Earp had been born, and born again, and now there would be a third life, for the iron fist that had seized his soul in childhood had lost its grip at last. The long struggle for control was over, and in its place, he found a wordless acceptance of a truth he'd always known. He was bred to this anger. It had been in him since the cradle. He'd never bullied neighbors or beaten a horse. He'd never punched the front teeth out of a six-year-old's mouth or hit a woman until she begged. But he was no better than his father, and never had been. He was far, far worse.”
― Mary Doria Russell, Epitaph

“Henpecked, the great Wyatt Earp,” Cody said.
“You evidently don’t know Jessie,” Wyatt said. “If she’s in one of her tempers she’d put a hyena to flight ...”
― Larry McMurtry, The Last Kind Words Saloon

“It was a quiet day in Tombstone.”
― Larry McMurtry, The Last Kind Words Saloon

“In March 1872, he turned 24. He was already a widower, and a fellow who had had repeated brushes with the law. He had no home and no real prospects, and, writes Sherry Monahan, he apparently continued his downward spiral into the depths of depravity. Wyatt was a lonely man touched by tragedy who was reluctant or unable to make friends and to let anyone get close to him. It would have been very easy for him to fall in with the wrong crowd and repeat the ill-advised horse stealing escapade, or worse. Instead, Wyatt went to Wichita and found redemption.”
― Tom Clavin, Dodge City: Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and the Wickedest Town in the American West

“Before the end of the day there will take place what became known as the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral … All Ike Clanton needed, and had really been seeking all morning, was an audience. He launched into a soliloquy: “You fellows haven’t given me any show at all. You’ve treated me like a dog. Fight is my racket, and all I want is four feet of ground. If you fellows had been a second later, I would have furnished a coroner’s inquest for the town. I will get even with all of you for this. If I had a six-shooter now, I would make a fight with all of you.”
― Tom Clavin, Tombstone: The Earp Brothers, Doc Holliday, and the Vendetta Ride from Hell