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The prose of William Faulkner, Larry McMurtry said Thursday night, always felt like a perfect match for the pine-forested terrain of the Mississippi Delta. His own prose, he said, matches that of his homeland, the West Texas plains. Simple, spare, direct.

Associated Press

Larry McMurtry

His conversational style is much the same, as the sold-out crowd at the Nasher Salon soon found out. Nasher official Jane Offenbach said the museum "could have sold out Texas Stadium twice" for the event featuring Mr. McMurtry and writing partner Diana Ossana, with whom he won the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay (Brokeback Mountain) in 2006.

The pair has also collaborated on the novels Pretty Boy Floyd and Zeke and Ned. By himself, Mr. McMurtry has written 28 novels, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lonesome Dove.

It was great to hear the two talk so candidly about Hollywood and to hear Mr. McMurtry not back down from criticisms leveled years ago at the mediocrity of Texas fiction. Texas novelists are, he said, "not tough-minded enough." When it comes to his own fiction, he is simply "outta gas," lacking both energy and creativity. And besides, he said, he was never more than "a minor regional novelist." He even has a T-shirt to prove it. Only Philip Roth from his generation, he said, became a great American novelist.

In an interview before the appearance, Mr. McMurtry was asked how he's able to write so well about women. Ms. Ossana, who knows him quite well, had her own opinion: "His women characters are very full and very much realized. He might know his women characters really well, but he's as clueless as the next guy about women in real life." The two then collaborated again – on a laugh.