True Grit (1969) quotes

View Quote Colonel Stonehill: I just received word that a young girl fell head first down a fifty foot well on the Towson Road. I thought perhaps it was you.

View Quote Colonel Stonehill: Most people around here know of Rooster Cogburn and some people live to regret it. I would not be surprised to learn that he is a relative of yours.

View Quote Mexican Bob: My wounds healed by themselves - from the inside!

View Quote Moon: He never played me false until he killed me.

View Quote Tom Chaney: A gun will say a whole lot quick!

View Quote Tom Chaney: Everything happens to me, and now I'm shot by a child!

View Quote Mattie: [drinking water from river near camp] That tastes like iron!
La Boeuf: You're lucky to be where water's so handy. I've seen the time I've drank out of a filthy hoofprint and I was glad to get it.
Rooster: If ever I meet one of you Texas waddies who ain't drunk from a hoofprint, I think I'll… I'll shake their hand, or buy them a Daniel Webster cigar! [he looks over La Boeuf's horse] How long you boys down there been mounted on sheep?
La Boeuf: Go ahead and have your little joke. But I'll tell you one thing: that little fella there will still be running when that big American stud of yours is winded and collapsed.
Rooster: Ha — sheep! Heh, heh…

View Quote Mattie: I'm here to take you back to Fort Smith and hang you!
Chaney: And I think I will not go. Now how do you like that?
Mattie: Well, there's a posse of officers up the hill who'll force you to go!
Chaney: How many officers?
Mattie: I'd say right around fifty — and they mean business! So you just walk up that hill right in front of me.
Chaney: I believe I'll oblige those officers to come after me.
Mattie: If you refuse to go with me, I'll have to shoot you.
Chaney: Is that so? Well, you better **** your piece. [Mattie pulls back the lever on the revolver to load it. She doesn't pull it all the way.] All the way back, until it locks!
Mattie: [****s revolver properly] I know how to do it. Now you mean to say that you won't go with me on your own free will?
Chaney: You just got it the other way around, now you will follow me!
[Mattie pulls the trigger as a response and shoots Chaney in the ribcage. The recoil knocks her back and she falls down, while Chaney falls down onto the sand on the river as well.] Chaney: I didn't think you'd do it!
Rooster: [From the top of the hill] Sis! Where are you!
Mattie: I'm down here! I got Chaney!
Chaney: I just didn't think you'd do it! One of my short ribs is broke!
Mattie: You killed my father when he was trying to help you! You're just a piece of trash! You also killed a senator in Texas when he was sitting on a porch swing!
Chaney: Everything happens to me and now I'm shot by a child!
Mattie: I'll shoot you again if you don't get up!

View Quote Rooster: What we want to do is get them inside that dugout. I'll shoot the last man through the door, and then we'll have 'em over a barrel!
La Boeuf: You'll shoot them without a call?
Rooster: Well, it'll give 'em to know our intentions is serious! [La Boeuf & Mattie give him disapproving glares] Aw, well, I'll holler down after I shoot and see if any of 'em want to be taken alive — but when they won't, we'll shoot 'em as they come out the door.

View Quote [In a scuffle with Chaney, Mattie falls into a rattlesnake pit.]
Mattie: Help me! Please help me! I'm in the pit! There's a snake down here, and skeletons!
Chaney: [leaning head over edge of pit] I warrant there'll be another one before long — a little, spindly one! How do you like it?
Mattie: [sobbing hysterically] Oh, help me, help me… please, HELP ME!
Chaney: You say you don't like it?

View Quote [Marshal Cogburn is cross-examined by a defense attorney]
Attorney: How many men have you shot since you became a marshal, Mr. Cogburn?
Rooster: I never shot nobody I didn't have to.
Attorney: That was not the question. How many?
Rooster: Uh, shot, or killed?
Attorney: Oh, let us restrict it to killed, so that we may have a manageable figure!
Rooster: Well, twelve to fifteen, stopping men in flight and defending myself.
Attorney: Twelve to fifteen? So many that you cannot keep an accurate count! I have examined the record, Mr. Cogburn. A much more accurate figure is available. Come now — how many?
Rooster: Counting them two Whartons… twenty-three.
Attorney: Twenty-three men in four years. That makes about six men a year!
Rooster: It's a dangerous business.

View Quote [Moon & Emmett Quincy were arrested in previous scene; Moon was shot in the leg during their capture]
Moon: Oh, my leg hurts!
Rooster: I'll bet it do, sonny-boy. Now you just sit right still so it don't bleed so much.
...
Quincy: I don't know any Ned Pepper. What's he look like?
Rooster: Short, feisty fella. He's got a messed-up lower lip. I shot him in it.
Quincy: In the lip? What was you aiming at?
Rooster: His upper lip.

View Quote [Ned Pepper, Mexican Bob, and the Parmalee brothers meet Rooster Cogburn blocking the road.]
Rooster: Where's the girl, Ned?
Ned: She was in wonderful health when last I saw her. I can't answer for her now.
Rooster: You'll answer for her now! Where is she?
La Boeuf: [from far off, in outlaw camp] Rooster, make a run for it! I've got Mattie! Chaney too!
Ned: Well, Rooster, will you give us the road? I have business elsewhere.
Rooster: Farrell, you and your brother stand clear. I've got no interest in you today. Stand clear and you won't get hurt.
Harold: ****-a-doodle-doo! [other outlaws laugh]
Ned: What's your intention, Rooster? You think one on four is a dog-fall?
Rooster: I mean to kill you in one minute, Ned, or see you hanged at Fort Smith at Judge Parker's convenience. Which'll it be?
Ned: I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man!
Rooster: Fill your hand, you son of a bitch!

View Quote [Rooster brings four dead outlaws to Indian Police outpost.]
Rooster: Boots, I got Hayes and some youngster outside, along with Moon and Quincy. I want you to bury 'em.
Boots: They're dead?
Rooster: Well, I wouldn't want you to bury 'em if they wasn't!

View Quote A fella that carries a big-bore Sharps carbine might come in handy… if we get jumped by elephants, or buffalo, or something.