Thomas McGuane Quotes

I'm like a fungus; you can't get rid of me.

I'm not the kind of person who gives up without a fight.

I am a fighter. I'm not just there to go along and get along.

But this tree in the yard-this tree that men chopped down...this tree that they built a bonfire around, trying to burn up it's stump-this tree lived! It lived! And nothing could destroy it.

I have seen your despatch expressing your unwillingness to break your hold where you are. Neither am I willing. Hold on with a bull-dog gripe, and chew & choke, as much as possible.

Give up trying to make me give up

I don't give in, I don't give up, I don't take no for an answer.

Never lose hope, be persistent and stubborn and never give up. There are many instances in history where apparent losers suddenly turn out to be winners unexpectedly, so you should never conclude all hope is lost.

Those who successfully go through tough times do so because they keep insisting.

We're going to fight this battle with everything we have, and we will probably lose. But then we will fight it again, and we will lose a little less, for this battle will win us many supporters. And then we'll lose *again*. And *again*. And we will fight on. Because as hard as it is to win by fighting, it's impossible to win by doing nothing.

I'm a little shot that just kept on shooting.

You can be stubborn and successful or you can give it up a bit and change things around. For me it's important to have a bit of both.

The only tired I was, was tired of giving in.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

No hardy perennial has the enduring quality of hope. Cut it to the roots, stamp it underfoot, let frost and fire work their will, and still some valiant shoot will push, to grow again on such scanty fare as it can find. Only time and the cruel quicklime of fact can destroy that stubborn urgency.

Persistence is stubbornness with a purpose.

To get something new done you have to be stubborn and focused, to the point that others might find unreasonable.

The word impossible does not exist for me. I've got a lot of signal flags in my flag bag, but there is not a white one in there. I am going to keep fighting until the day I die - and might keep on fighting afterward ... depends on where I am.

Grit is the stubborn refusal to quit.

No man is good for anything who has not some particle of obstinacy to use upon occasion.

I've seen Joe take on many battles, cancer being one of them, and the determination that he has, and he won't stop, he's not going to make one announcement and write one editorial and go away.

Stubbornness usually is considered a negative; but I think that trait has been a positive for me.

I am determined to make the most of this life that I have, damn it - it's that kind of stubbornness I think we all need more of.

The man who gets bit twice by the same dog is better adapted for that kind of business than any other.