She sounded hostile suddenly, and I felt hostile. We hadn’t been when we parted, not at all. I was surprised to feel so hostile. I had been brooding for days. I guess I blamed her for not making us work. I guess she blamed me for the same thing. When she told me she was leaving I had felt paralysed. I felt really helpless.
—Larry McMurtry, All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers, Liveright, 2018 (1972)