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

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

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

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 [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 DAMN a man that whistles!

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

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

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