What’d our bet come to, Sam, Abilene asked casually. He busted the fresh rack and started shooting red balls. Sam grinned at Sonny and went over to the cash register and got five ten-dollar bills. He laid them on the side of the snooker table and when Abilene noticed them he took a money clip out of his pocket and put the fifty dollars in it.

It’s what I get for bettin’ on my hometown ball club, Sam said. I ought to have better sense.

It wouldn’t hurt if you had a better home town, Abilene said.

— Larry McMurtry (1966), The Last Picture Show, 7.

Here, truly, is the heart of every Larry McMurtry novel.