True Grit quotes

View Quote Mr. Rat, I have a writ here that says you are to stop eating Cheng Lee's cornmeal forthwith. Now, It's a rat writ, writ for a rat, and this is lawful service of same! [to Mattie] See? He doesn't pay any attention to me. [BANG! he shoots the rat] You can't serve papers on a rat, baby sister. You either kill him or let him be.

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 wadis 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 General Price don't belong to me. He just rooms with me. Cats don't belong to nobody. 'Course, I depend on him.

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 Fill your hand, you son-of-a-bitch!

View Quote Young fella, if you're looking for trouble, I'll accommodate you. Otherwise, leave it alone.

View Quote Baby sister, I was born game, and I mean to go out that way.

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 DAMN a man that whistles!

View Quote I won't rest until Tom Chaney is barking in Hell.

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

View Quote I'm going! And it's not because you say I can't, and it's not because you say I can. I paid good cash money to be here, and I'm on my own business! Now, we'll have no more talk about it.

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.