Quotes / Riding into the Sunset

"He tips his hat and mounts his horse
And turns down all reward, of course
The setting sun completes a fond cliche."

—Ookla The Mok, "Hollywood's Ending"

"The West has contributed much to our way of life, but among all its contributions one stands out as the most significant. Since time immemorial, men have had to do what they've had to do. And until the nineteenth century, men did what they had to do, and went home—back to the same four walls, the same nagging wife, the same mundane concerns. But the invention of the sunset changed all that. With the development of the modern Western sunset, heroes finally had something to ride off into, something awe-inspiring, something remote, something worthy of the men who built the West."

— Narrator of Peter Schickele's Hornsmoke: A Horse Opera

"Let's ride into the sunset together
Stirrup to stirrup, side by side
When the day is through, I'll be here with you
Into the sunset we will ride"

— Lost Weekend Western Swing Band, "Let's Ride Into the Sunset Together"

"What's going on?"

"Well, in order to satisfy the needs of the collective, the hero must abandon the self and solidify his image as an icon that will forever be remembered."

"So, this is the sunset shot."

—Priscilla explaining the ending of the film to another Dirtonian child, Rango

"Just remember Fievel, one man's sunset is another man's dawn. I don't know what's out there beyond those hills, but if you ride yonder — head up, eyes steady, heart open — I think one day you'll find that you're the hero you've been looking for."

— Wiley Burp, An American Tail: Fievel Goes West

And we rumbled off into the sunset. Sunrise. Whatever: I’m telling the story here, okay? The light changed and took us with it into a different world.

— Rolling Steel: A Pre-Apocalyptic Love Story by Jay Lake and Shannon Page

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