True Grit Quotes – ‘They tell me you are a man with true grit.’

Starring: Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Barry Pepper, Dakin Matthews, Jarlath Conroy, Paul Rae, Domhnall Gleeson, Elizabeth Marvel, Roy Lee Jones, Ed Corbin, Leon Russom, Bruce Green

OUR RATING: ★★★☆☆

Story:

Western drama directed and written by the Coen brothers which follows 14 year-old farm girl Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld), who hires Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), a boozy, trigger-happy lawman to help her fin after an outlaw named Tom Chaney (Brolin), who murdered her father. The bickering duo are accompanied on their quest by a Texas Ranger named LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) who is also tracking Chaney. Together the unlikely trio ventures into hostile territory to dispense some Old West justice.

Our Favorite Quote:

‘You must pay for everything in this world, one way and another. There is nothing free, except the grace of God.’ – Mattie (True Grit) Click To Tweet

Best Quotes (Total Quotes: 99)

[first lines]
40-Year-Old Mattie: [voice over] People do not give it credence that a young girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father’s blood, but it did happen. I was just fourteen years of age when a coward by the name of Tom Chaney shot my father down, and robbed him of his life and his horse and two California gold pieces that he carried in his trouser band. Chaney was a hired man, and Papa had taken him up to Fort Smith to help lead back a string of mustang ponies he’d bought. In town, Chaney had fallen to drink and cards, and lost all his money. He got it into his head he was been cheated and went back to the boarding house for his Henry rifle. When Papa tried to intervene, Chaney shot him.

40-Year-Old Mattie: [voice over] Chaney fled. He could have walked his horse, for not a sole in that city could be bothered to give chase. No doubt Chaney fancied himself scot free, but he was wrong. You must pay for everything in this world, one way and another. There is nothing free, except the grace of God.

Undertaker: Is that the man?
Mattie Ross: That is my father.
Undertaker: If you would like to kiss him it would be all right.
Yarnell: He has gone home. Praise the lord.
Mattie Ross: Why is it so much?
Undertaker: The quality of the casket and of the embalming. The life like appearance requires time and art. And the chemicals come dear. The particulars are in your bill. If you’d like to kiss him it would be all right.
Mattie Ross: Thank you. The spirit has flown.

Undertaker: You did not specify that he was to be shipped.
Mattie Ross: Well sixty dollars is every cent we have. It leaves nothing for our board. Yarnell, you can see to the body’s transport to the train station and accompany it home, I will have to sleep here tonight. I still have to collect father’s things and see to some other business.
Yarnell: Your mama didn’t say nothing about you seeing to no business here!
Mattie Ross: It is business Mama doesn’t know about. It’s all right, Yarnell, I dismiss you.
Yarnell: I am not sure…
Mattie Ross: Tell mama not to sign anything until I return home and see that Papa is buried in his mason’s apron.

Mattie Ross: Your terms are agreeable if I may pass the night here.
Undertaker: Here? Among these people?
[Mattie looks around the empty room]
Mattie Ross: These people?
Undertaker: I am expecting three more souls. Sullivan, Smith, and His Tongue In The Rain.

[at the Gallows three men are about to be hanged]
Repentant Condemned Man: Ladies and gentlemen beware and train up your children in the way that they should go! You see what has become of me because of drink. I killed a man in a trifling quarrel over a pocketknife. If I had received good instruction as a child…
[to the woman next to her in the crowd]
Mattie Ross: Can you point out the sheriff?
[The woman indicates a figure sitting at the gallows behind the condemned men]
Woman at Hanging: Him with the mustaches.
Repentant Condemned Man: I would be with my wife and children today. I do not know what is to become of them, but I hope and pray that you will not slight them and compel them to go into low company.
[he starts to cry and a man standing by slips a black hood over his head]

Unrepentant Condemned Man: Well, I killed the wrong man is the which-of-why I’m here. Had I killed the man I meant to I don’t believe I would have been convicted. I see men out there in that crowd is worse than me.
[he looks at the man standing behind him and nods]
Unrepentant Condemned Man: Okay.
[the man behind him slips a black hood over his head and the Indian next to him starts to speak]
Condemned Indian: Before I am hanged, I would like to say…
[the man behind him slips a hood over his head and the executioner opens the trap door and all three men are hanged]

Sheriff: No, we ain’t arrested him. ain’t caught up to him, he lit out for the Territory. I would think he has throwed in with Lucky Ned Pepper, whose gang robbed a mail hack yesterday on the Poteau River.
Mattie Ross: Why are you not looking for him?
Sheriff: I have no authority in the Indian Nation. Tom Chaney is the business of the U.S. marshals now.
Mattie Ross: When will they arrest him?
Sheriff: Not soon I am afraid. The marshals are not well staffed and, I tell you frankly, Chaney is at the end of a long list of fugitives and malefactors.

Mattie Ross: Could I hire a marshal to pursue Tom Chaney?
Sheriff: You have a lot of experience with bounty hunters?
Mattie Ross: That is a silly question. I am here to settle my father’s affairs.
Sheriff: All alone?
Mattie Ross: Well, I am the person for it. Mama was never any good at sums and she can hardly spell cat. I intend to see papa’s killer hanged.
Sheriff: Well, Nothing prevents you from offering a reward, or from so informing a marshal. It would have to be real money, though, to be persuasive. Chaney is across the river in Choctaw Nation
Mattie Ross: I will see to the money. Who’s the best marshal?
Sheriff: Well, I’d have to weigh that. William Waters is the best tracker. He is half Comanche and it is something to see him cut for sign. The meanest is Rooster Cogburn. He is a pitiless man, double tough and fear don’t enter into his thinking. He loves to pull a cork. The best is probably L.T. Quinn, he brings his prisoners in alive. Now he may let one slip by now and again but he believes even the worst of men is entitled to a fair shake.
Mattie Ross: Where can I find this Rooster?

[Mattie knocks the rough wooden door of an outhouse]
Rooster Cogburn: The jakes is occupied.
Mattie Ross: I know it is occupied Mr. Cogburn. As I said, I have business with you.
Rooster Cogburn: I have prior business.
Mattie Ross: You have been at it for quite some time, Mr. Cogburn.
Rooster Cogburn: There is no clock on my business! To hell with you! How did you stalk me here?!
Mattie Ross: The sheriff told me to look in the saloon. In the saloon they referred me here. We must talk.
Rooster Cogburn: Women ain’t allowed in the saloon!
Mattie Ross: I was not there as a customer. I am fourteen years old.
[there’s a silence before Cogburn responds]
Mattie Ross: The jakes is occupied. Will be for some time.

Mattie Ross: How much are you paying for cotton?
[Stonehill looks up from his desk]
Col. Stonehill: Nine and a half for low middling and ten for ordinary.
Mattie Ross: We got most of ours out early. Sold it to Woodson Brothers in Little Rock for eleven cents.
Col. Stonehill: Then I suggest you take the balance of it to the Woodson Brothers.
Mattie Ross: We took the balance to Woodson. We got ten and a half.
Col. Stonehill: Why’d you come here to tell me this?
Mattie Ross: I thought we might shop around up here next year but I guess we are doing all right in Little Rock.

Mattie Ross: I am Mattie Ross, daughter of Frank Ross.
Col. Stonehill: Oh, a tragic thing. May I say your father impressed me with his manly qualities. He was a close trader but he acted the gentleman.
Mattie Ross: Well, I propose to sell those ponies back to you that my father bought.
Col. Stonehill: That, I fear, is out of the question. I will see that they are shipped to you at my earliest convenience.
Mattie Ross: We don’t want the ponies now. We don’t need them.
Col. Stonehill: Well that hardly concerns me. Your father bought the ponies and paid for them and there is an end of it. I-I have the bill of sale.
Mattie Ross: And I want three hundred dollars for Papa’s saddle horse that was stolen from your stable.
Col. Stonehill: You’ll have to take that up with the man who stole the horse.
Mattie Ross: Tom Chaney stole the horse while it was in your care. You are responsible.
[Stonehill chuckles]

Col. Stonehill: Yeah, I admire your sand but I believe you will find I’m not liable for such claims.
Mattie Ross: You were the custodian. If you were a bank and were robbed you could not simply tell the depositors to go hang.
Col. Stonehill: I do not entertain hypotheticals, the world as it is is vexing enough. Secondly, your valuation of the horse is high by about two hundred dollars. How old are you?
Mattie Ross: If anything my price is low. Christ, Judy is a fine racing mare. I’ve seen her jump an eight-rail fence with a heavy rider and I am fourteen.
Col. Stonehill: Oh, well, that’s all very interesting. The ponies are yours, take them. Your father’s horse was stolen by a murderous criminal. I had provided reasonable protection for the creature as per our implicit agreement. My watchman had his teeth knocked out and can take only soup.
Mattie Ross: Then I will take it to law.
Col. Stonehill: You have no case!
Mattie Ross: Lawyer J. Noble Daggett of Dardanelle, Arkansas may think otherwise, as might a jury, petitioned by a widow and three small children.

Col. Stonehill: I will pay two hundred dollars to your father’s estate when I have in my hand a letter from your lawyer absolving me of all liability from the beginning of the world to date.
Mattie Ross: I will take two hundred dollars for Judy, plus one hundred for the ponies and twenty-five dollars for the gray horse that Tom Chaney left. He was easily worth forty. And that is three hundred twenty-five dollars total.
Col. Stonehill: The ponies have no part in it! I will not buy them.
Mattie Ross: Then the price for Judy is three hundred twenty-five dollars.
Col. Stonehill: I would not pay three hundred and twenty-five dollars for winged Pegasus! As for the gray horse, it does not belong to you!
Mattie Ross: The gray was lent to Tom Chaney by my father. Chaney only had the use of him.
Col. Stonehill: I will pay two hundred and twenty-five dollars and keep the gray horse. I don’t want the ponies.
Mattie Ross: I cannot accept that. There will be no settlement after I leave this office. It will go to law.
Col. Stonehill: All right, this is my last offer. Two hundred and fifty dollars. For that I get the release previously discussed and I keep your father’s saddle. The gray horse is not yours to sell.
Mattie Ross: The saddle is not for sale. I will keep it. Lawyer Dagget will prove ownership of the gray horse. He will come after you with a writ of replevin.
Col. Stonehill: A what?
Mattie Ross: Writ of replevin.
Col. Stonehill: All right, now let, listen very carefully as I will not bargain further. I will take the ponies back and the gray horse, which is mine, and settle for three hundred dollars. Now you must take that or leave it and I do not much care which it is.
Mattie Ross: Well, Lawyer Daggett would not wish me to consider anything under three hundred twenty five dollars. But I will settle for three hundred and twenty, if I am given the twenty in advance. Now here is what I have to say about the saddle.

Boarding House Landlady: Are you going to be staying with us or are you hurrying back home to your mama?
Mattie Ross: Well, I’ll stay here if you can have me. I had to spend last night at the undertakers in the company of three corpses. I felt like Ezekiel, in the valley of the dry bones.
Boarding House Landlady: And the lord bless you.

[Mattie unfolds a blanket to reveal a watch, a knife, and a long-barreled revolver]
Boarding House Landlady: This was in the poor father’s room. Now that is everything, there are no light fingers in this house.
[Mattie picks up the gun and holds it in her hands]
Boarding House Landlady: Now if you need something for to tote the gun around I can give you an empty flour sack for a nickel.

[Mattie is watching Cogburn being questioned as a witness in the courtroom]
Lawyer Goudy: Mr. Cogburn, in your four years as U.S. marshal, how many men have you shot?
Rooster Cogburn: I never shot nobody I didn’t have to.
Lawyer Goudy: Well, that was not the question. How many?
Rooster Cogburn: Shot or killed?
Lawyer Goudy: Let us restrict it to “killed” so that we may have a manageable figure.
Rooster Cogburn: About twelve, fifteen. Stopping men in flight, defending myself, et cetera.
Lawyer Goudy: Around twelve he says, or fifteen. So many that you cannot keep a precise count. I have examined the records and can supply the accurate figure.
Rooster Cogburn: Well, I believe them two Whartons makes it twenty-three.
Lawyer Goudy: And how many members of this one family, the Wharton family, have you killed?
Rooster Cogburn: Immediate, or…
Lawyer Goudy: Did you also shoot Dub Wharton, brother, and Clete Wharton, half-brother?
Rooster Cogburn: Oh, Clete was selling ardent spirits to the Cherokee. He come at me with a king bolt.
Lawyer Goudy: A king bolt? Now you were armed and he advanced upon you with nothing more than a king bolt? From a wagon tongue?
Rooster Cogburn: I’ve seen men badly tore up with things no bigger than a king bolt. I defended myself.
Lawyer Goudy: Returning to the other encounter with Aaron Wharton and his two remaining sons, you sprang from cover with revolver in hand?
Rooster Cogburn: I did.
Lawyer Goudy: Loaded and cocked?
Rooster Cogburn: Well, if it ain’t loaded and cocked it don’t shoot.
[the courtroom crowd laugh]
Lawyer Goudy: And like his son, Aaron Wharton advanced against an armed man?
Rooster Cogburn: Well, he was armed. He had that axe raised.

Lawyer Goudy: Now, I believe you testified that you backed away from Aaron Wharton?
That’s right.
Lawyer Goudy: Which direction were you going?
Rooster Cogburn: I always go backwards when I’m backing up.
[the courtroom crowd laugh]

Lawyer Goudy: Now, he advanced upon you much in the manner of Clete Wharton, menacing you with that little old king bolt or rolled up newspaper or whatever it was.
Rooster Cogburn: Yes sir. He commenced to cussing and laying about with threats.
Lawyer Goudy: And you were backing away? How many steps before the shooting started?
Rooster Cogburn: Uh, seven, eight steps?
Lawyer Goudy: So Aaron Wharton keeping pace, advancing away from his camp fire seven, eight step. What would that be, fifteen, twenty feet?
Rooster Cogburn: I suppose.
Lawyer Goudy: Will you explain to this jury, Mr. Cogburn, why Mr. Wharton was found immediately by his wash pot, one arm in the fire, his sleeve and hand smoldering?
Rooster Cogburn: Well…
Lawyer Goudy: Did you move the body after you shot him?
Rooster Cogburn: Why would I do that?
Lawyer Goudy: You did not drag the body over to the fire? Fling his arm in?
Rooster Cogburn: No sir.
Lawyer Goudy: Two witnesses who arrived on the scene will testify to the location of the body. You do not remember moving the body? So it was a cold blooded bushwhack, while poor Wharton was tending to his campfire?
First Lawyer: Objection.
Rooster Cogburn: I, if that was where the body was I might have moved him. I do not remember.
Lawyer Goudy: Why would you move the body, Mr. Cogburn?
Rooster Cogburn: Them hogs rooting around, they might have moved him. I do not remember.

Mattie Ross: Mr. Cogburn?
Rooster Cogburn: What is it?
Mattie Ross: I’d like to talk to you a minute.
Rooster Cogburn: What is it?
Mattie Ross: They tell me you are a man with true grit.
Rooster Cogburn: What do you want, girl? Speak up. It’s supper time.
Mattie Ross: Let me do that.
[she takes the cigarette he’s trying to roll]
Mattie Ross: Your makings are too dry. I am looking for the man who shot and killed my father, Frank Ross, in front of the Monarch boarding house. The man’s name is Tom Chaney. They say he is over in Indian Territory and I need somebody to go after him.
[she twists and licks the cigarette roll]

Rooster Cogburn: What’s your name, girl?
Mattie Ross: My name is Mattie Ross. We are located in Yell County. My mother is at home looking after my sister Victoria and my brother Little Frank.
Rooster Cogburn: You had best go home to them. They will need help with the churning.
Mattie Ross: There is a fugitive warrant out for Chaney. Government will pay you two dollars for bringing him in plus ten cents a mile for each of you. On top of that I will pay you a fifty dollar reward.

Rooster Cogburn: What are you? What you got there in your poke?
[he opens up the flour sack she’s holding and takes out the revolver]
Rooster Cogburn: My God! A Colt’s dragoon! You’re no bigger than a corn nubbin, what are you doing with a pistol like that?
Mattie Ross: Well, I intend to kill Tom Chaney with it.
Rooster Cogburn: Kill Tom Chaney?
Mattie Ross: Well, if the law fails to do so.
Rooster Cogburn: Well, that piece will do the job for you, if you found a highstump to rest it on and a wall to put behind you.
Mattie Ross: Nobody here knew my father and I am afraid nothing is going to be done about Chaney except I do it. My brother is a child and my mother is indecisive and hobbled by grief.
Rooster Cogburn: I don’t believe you have fifty dollars.
Mattie Ross: I have a contract with Colonel Stonehill which he will make payment on tomorrow or the next day, once a lawyer countersigns.
Rooster Cogburn: I don’t believe in fairy tales or sermons or stories about money, baby sister. But thank you for the cigarette.

[Mattie wakes up to see LeBoeuf is sitting on chair opposite her bed, watching her]
LeBoeuf: My name is LeBoeuf. I’ve just come from Yell County.
Mattie Ross: We have no rodeo clowns in Yell County.
LeBoeuf: A saucy line will not get you far with me. I saw your mother yesterday morning. She said for you to come right on home.
Mattie Ross: What was your business there?
[LeBoeuf drags his chair towards her bed and takes a small photograph from his coat]
LeBoeuf: This is a man I think you know.
[Mattie looks at the picture]
LeBoeuf: You called him Tom Chaney, I believe, though in the months I have been tracking him he has used the name, Theron Chelmsford, John Todd Andersen, and others. He dallied in Monroe, Louisiana, and Pine Bluff, Arkansas before turning up at your father’s place.
Mattie Ross: And why did you not catch him in Pine Bluff, Arkansas or Monroe, Louisiana?
LeBoeuf: He is a crafty one.
Mattie Ross: I thought him slow-witted myself.
LeBoeuf: That was his act.
Mattie Ross: It was a good one.

Mattie Ross: Are you some kind of law?
[LeBoeuf draws back his coat to display a star]
LeBoeuf: That’s right. I am a Texas Ranger.
Mattie Ross: That may make you a big noise in that state; in Arkansas you should mind that your Texas trappings and title do not make you an object of fun. Why have you been ineffectually pursuing Chaney?
LeBoeuf: He shot and killed a state senator named Bibbs in Waco, Texas. Bibbs family put out a reward.
Mattie Ross: Well, how came Chaney to shoot a state senator?
LeBoeuf: My understanding is there was an argument about a dog. You know anything about where Chaney has gone?
Mattie Ross: He is in the Territory, and I hold out little hope for you earning your bounty.
LeBoeuf: Why is that?
Mattie Ross: My man will beat you to it. I have hired a deputy marshal, the toughest one they have, and he is familiar with the Lucky Ned Pepper gang that they say Chaney has tied up with.

LeBoeuf: Well, I will throw in with you and your marshal.
Mattie Ross: No. Marshal Cogburn and I are fine.
LeBoeuf: It’ll be to our mutual advantage. Your marshal I presume knows the Territory; I know Chaney. It is at least a two-man job taking him alive.
Mattie Ross: When Chaney is taken he is coming back to Fort Smith to hang. I am not having him go to Texas to hang for shooting some senator.
LeBoeuf: It is not important where he hangs, is it?
Mattie Ross: It is to me. Is it to you?
LeBoeuf: Well, it means a great deal of money to me. It’s been many months’ work.
Mattie Ross: Well, I’m sorry that you are paid piecework not on wages, and that you have been eluded the winter long by a halfwit.
[LeBoeuf stands]
LeBoeuf: You give out very little sugar with your pronouncements. While I sat there watching you I gave some thought to stealing a kiss, though you are very young and sick and unattractive to boot, but now I have a mind to give you five or six good licks with my belt.
Mattie Ross: Well, one would be as unpleasant as the other. If you wet your comb, it might tame that cowlick.

[Mattie’s reading the contents of a letter from her lawyer]
Dagget: [voice over] Mattie, I wish you would leave these matters entirely to me, or at the very least do me the courtesy of consulting me before entering such agreements. I am not scolding you, but I am saying your headstrong ways will lead you into a tight corner one day. I trust the enclosed document will let you conclude your business and return to Yell County. Yours, J. Noble Dagget.

Mattie Ross: I was as bad yesterday as you look today. I was forced to share a bed with Grandma Turner.
Col. Stonehill: I am not acquainted with Grandma Turner. If she’s a resident of this city it does not surprise me that she carries disease.
[he coughs]
Col. Stonehill: This malarial place has ruined my health as it has my finances. I owe you money.
Mattie Ross: You have not traded poorly.
Col. Stonehill: Oh, certainly not. I am paying you for a horse I do not possess and have bought back a string of useless ponies which I cannot sell again.
Mattie Ross: You are forgetting the gray horse.
Col. Stonehill: Crowbait!
Mattie Ross: You are looking at the thing in the wrong light.
Col. Stonehill: I am looking at it in the light of God’s eternal truth.
Mattie Ross: Your illness is putting you down in the dumps. You will soon find a good buyer for the ponies.
Col. Stonehill: Oh, I have a tentative offer of ten dollars per head from the Pfitzer Soap Works of Little Rock.
Mattie Ross: Well, it would be a shame to destroy such spirited horseflesh.
Col. Stonehill: So it would. I am confident the deal will fall through.
Mattie Ross: Well, look here. I need a pony and I will pay ten dollars for one of them.
Col. Stonehill: No. That was lot price. No, no. It, wait a minute. Are we trading again?

[Mattie shakes Cogburn to wake him up]
Mattie Ross: Mr. Cogburn, it is I. Mattie Ross, your employer.
[Cogburn wakes up in shock and looks at her]
Mattie Ross: How long till you’re ready to go?
Rooster Cogburn: Go where?
Mattie Ross: Into the Indian Territory. In pursuit of Tom Chaney.
Rooster Cogburn: Oh. You’re the bereaved girl with stories of El Dorado. How much money you got there?
Mattie Ross: I said fifty dollars to retrieve Chaney. You did not believe me?
Rooster Cogburn: Well, I did not know. You are a hard one to figure.

Mattie Ross: How long for you to make ready to depart?
[Cogburn starts to fumble with his cigarette fixings]
Rooster Cogburn: Well now, hold on , sis. I remember your offer, I do not remember agreeing to it. If I’m to go up against Ned Pepper I will need a hundred dollars. That much I can tell you. A hundred dollars!
[Mattie takes the cigarettes fixings from his hands and start to roll his cigarette for him]
Rooster Cogburn: To retrieve your man, a hundred dollars. I will take that fifty dollars in advance. It’ll be for expenses.
Mattie Ross: You are trying to take advantage of me.
Rooster Cogburn: I’m giving you the children’s rate. I’m not a sharper, I’m an old man sleeping in a rope bed in a room behind a Chinese grocery. I have nothing.
Mattie Ross: You want to be kept in whiskey.
Rooster Cogburn: I don’t need to buy that, I confiscate it. I am an officer of the court.
[she hands him the finished cigarette]
Rooster Cogburn: Thank you. A hundred dollars. That’s the rate.
[he starts putting on his trousers]
Mattie Ross: I shall not niggle. Can we depart this afternoon?
Rooster Cogburn: We?! You’re not going. That is no part of it.
Mattie Ross: Well, you have misjudged me if you think I am silly enough to give you fifty dollars and watch you simply ride off.
Rooster Cogburn: I am a bonded U.S. marshal!
Mattie Ross: That weighs but little with me. I will see the thing done.

[he walks into the hanging skinned ducks]
Rooster Cogburn: Goddamn ducks! I can’t go after Ned Pepper and a band of hard men and look after a baby at the same time.
Mattie Ross: I am not a baby.
Rooster Cogburn: I won’t be stopping at boarding houses were there’s warm beds and hot grub on the table. I’ll be traveling fast and eating light. What little sleeping is done will take place on the ground.
Mattie Ross: Well, I have slept out at night before. Papa took me and Little Frank coon hunting last summer on the Petit Jean. We were in the woods all night. We were sat around a big fire and Yarnell told ghost stories. We had a good time.
Rooster Cogburn: Coon hunting! This ain’t no coon hunt.
Mattie Ross: It is the same idea as a coon hunt.
Rooster Cogburn: It don’t come within forty miles of being a coon hunt!
Mattie Ross: You are just trying to make your work sound harder than it is. Here is the money. Now, I aim to get Tom Chaney and if you are not game I will find somebody who is game. All I have heard out of you so far is talk. I know you can drink whiskey and snore and spit and wallow in filth and bemoan your station. The rest has been braggadocio. They told me you had grit and that is why I came to you. I am not paying for talk. I can get all the talk I need and more at the Monarch Boarding House.
[Rooster stares at her]
Rooster Cogburn: Leave the money. Meet me here at seven o’clock tomorrow morning and we’ll begin our coon hunt.

[as Mattie is getting ready to meet Cogburn]
Mattie Ross: [voice over] Dearest Mother. I am about to embark on a great adventure. I have learned that Tom Chaney has fled into the wild and I shall assist the authorities in pursuit. You know that Papa would want me to be firm in the right as he always was, so do not fear on my account. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil. The author of all things watches over me. And I have a fine horse. Kiss little Frankie for me and pinch Violet’s cheek. My Papa’s death will soon be avenged. I am off for the Choctaw Nation.

Mattie Ross: Where is Marshal Cogburn?
Mr. Lee: Went away. Left this.
[he hands her a note and Mattie opens the note and reads]
Rooster Cogburn: [voice over] Here inside is a train ticket for your return home. Use it. By
the time you read this I will be across the river in the Indian nation. Pursuit would be futile. I will return with your man Chaney. Leave me to my work. Reuben Cogburn.

[as Mattie emerges from the River she has crossed on her horse to reach Cogburn]
Rooster Cogburn: That is quite a horse. I will give you ten dollars for him.
Mattie Ross: From the money you stole from me?
Rooster Cogburn: That was not stolen. I’m out for your man.
Mattie Ross: I was to accompany you. If I do not, there is no agreement and my money was stolen.
LeBoeuf: Marshal, put this child back on the ferry. We have a long road, and time is a-wasting.
Mattie Ross: If I go back and it’s to the office of the U.S. marshals to report the theft of my money. And futile, Marshal Cogburn “Pursuit would be futile”? It’s not spelt f-u-d-e-l.

[LeBoeuf grabs Mattie offer her horse, throws her to the ground]
LeBoeuf: It is time for your spanking.
[he begins to spank her]
LeBoeuf: Now you will do as the grown-ups say! Or I will get myself a birch switch and stripe your leg!
Mattie Ross: Are you going to let him do this, Marshal?
Rooster Cogburn: No, I don’t believe I will. Put your switch away, LeBoeuf.
LeBoeuf: I aim to finish what I started.
Rooster Cogburn: That will be the biggest mistake you ever made, you Texas brush-popper!
[LeBoeuf hears the sound of a gun being cocked and stops beating Mattie, he flings the switch aside and walks to his horse]
LeBoeuf: Hoorawed by a little girl.

[LeBoeuf and Mattie are sitting around a large fire at night]
LeBoeuf: I am not accustomed to so large a fire. In Texas, we’ll make do with a fire of little more than twigs or buffalo chips, heat the night’s ration of beans. And, it is Ranger policy never to make your camp in the same place as your cook fire. Very imprudent to make your
presence known in unsettled country.
[Cogburn enters with an armload of wood and dumps the wood on the fire]

LeBoeuf: How do you know that Bagby will have intelligence?
Rooster Cogburn: He has a store.
LeBoeuf: That makes him an authority on movements in the Territory?
Rooster Cogburn: We have entered a wild place and anyone coming in, wanting any kind of supply, cannot pick and choose his portal.
LeBoeuf: That is a piece of foolishness. All the snakes are asleep this time of year.
Rooster Cogburn: They have been known to wake up.
Mattie Ross: Well, let me have a rope too.
Rooster Cogburn: A snake would not bother you. You are too little and bony. You should fetch water for the morning, put it by the fire. The creek’s going to ice over tonight.
Mattie Ross: I am not going down there again. If you want any more water you can fetch it yourself.
LeBoeuf: You’re lucky to be traveling in a place where a spring is so handy. In my country you can ride for days and see no ground water. I have lapped filthy water from a hoof print and was glad to have it.
Rooster Cogburn: If I ever meet one of you Texas waddies who says he had never drank water out of a horse track I think I’ll shake his hand, give him a Daniel Webster cigar.
LeBoeuf: You don’t believe it?
Rooster Cogburn: Oh, I believed it the first twenty-five times I heard it. Maybe, maybe it is true. Maybe lapping water off the ground is Ranger policy.
LeBoeuf: You are getting ready to show your ignorance now, Cogburn. I don’t mind a little personal chaffing but I won’t hear anything against the Ranger troop from a man like you.

Rooster Cogburn: How long you boys been mounted on sheep down there?
[LeBoeuf sits forward in anger]
LeBoeuf: My white Appaloosa still be galloping when that big American stud of yours is winded and collapsed. Now make another joke about it. You are only trying to put on a show for this girl Mattie, who what you must think is a keen tongue.
Rooster Cogburn: This is like women talking.
LeBoeuf: Yes, that is the way! Make me out foolish in this girl’s eyes.
Rooster Cogburn: I think she has got you pretty well figured.
[Mattie breaks the long silence that follows]
Mattie Ross: Would you two like to hear the story of “The Midnight Caller”? One of you is going to have to be “The Caller” and I will tell you what to say, and I will do all the other parts myself.

Mattie Ross: Where is Mr. LeBoeuf?
Rooster Cogburn: Down by the creek performing his necessaries.
Mattie Ross: Well, Marshal Cogburn, I welcome the chance for a private parley. I gather that you and Mr. LeBoeuf have come to some sort of agreement and as your employer I believe I have a right to know the particulars.
Rooster Cogburn: The particulars is that we bring Chaney down to the magistrate in San Saba Texas where they have a considerable reward on offer. Which we split.
Mattie Ross: I did not want him brought to Texas, to have a Texas punishment administered for a Texas crime. That was not our agreement.
Rooster Cogburn: What you want is to have him caught and punished.
Mattie Ross: I want him to know that he is being punished for killing my father.
Rooster Cogburn: Oh, you can let him know that. You can tell him to his face. You can spit on him, make him eat sand out of the road. I’ll hold him down. Well, if you want I will flay the flesh off the soles of his feet, find you an Indian pepper you can rub into the wound. Isn’t that a hundred dollars’ value?
Mattie Ross: No, it is not. When I have bought and paid for something I will have my way. Why do you think I am paying you if not to have my way?
Rooster Cogburn: It’s time for you to learn you cannot have your way in every little particular. You find I fail to satisfy your terms I will return your money at the end of this expedition.
Mattie Ross: Little Blackie and I are riding back to the U.S. marshals’ office. This is fraud!
Rooster Cogburn: Oh, Goddamn it!

LeBoeuf: What’s going on?
Rooster Cogburn: This is a business conversation.
LeBoeuf: Is that what you call it. It sounds to me like you are still being hoorawed by a little girl.
Rooster Cogburn: Did you say hoorawed?
LeBoeuf: That was the word.
Mattie Ross: There is no hoorawing in it. My agreement with the Marshal antedates yours. It has the force of law.
LeBoeuf: The force of law! This man is a notorious thumper! He rode by the light of the moon with Quantrill and Bloody Bill Anderson!
Rooster Cogburn: That men was patriots, Texas trash!
LeBoeuf: They murdered women and children in Lawrence, Kansas.
Rooster Cogburn: That’s a God damned lie! What army was you in, mister?
LeBoeuf: I was at Shreveport first with Kirby-Smith, then…
Rooster Cogburn: Yeah? What side was you on?
LeBoeuf: I was in the army of Northern Virginia, Cogburn, and I don’t have to hang my head when I say it!
Rooster Cogburn: If you had served with Captain Quantrill…
LeBoeuf: Captain? Captain Quantrill indeed!
Rooster Cogburn: Best let this go, LeBoeuf!
LeBoeuf: Captain of what?
Rooster Cogburn: Good, then! There are not sufficient dollars in the state of Texas to make it worth my while to listen to your opinions. Our agreement is nullified.
LeBoeuf: That suits me!
[LeBoeuf turns his horse to leave]
Rooster Cogburn: It’s each man for himself!
LeBoeuf: Congratulations, Cogburn. You’ve graduated from marauder to wet nurse.
[as he’s riding away]
LeBoeuf: Adios!

[after Cogburn has met with Bagby]
Mattie Ross: Has Chaney been here?
Rooster Cogburn: No. But Coke Hayes was, two days ago. Coke runs with Lucky Ned. He bought supplies, with this.
[he flips a coin to Mattie]
Mattie Ross: Well, this is Papa’s gold piece! Tom Chaney, here we come!
Rooster Cogburn: Well, it is not the world’s only California gold piece.
Mattie Ross: They are rare, here.
Rooster Cogburn: They are rare. But if it is Chaney’s, it could just as easily mean that Lucky Ned and his gang fell upon him, as that he fell in with them. Chaney could be a corpse.
Mattie Ross: That would be a bitter disappointment, Marshal. What do we do?
Rooster Cogburn: Oh, pursue. Ned’s unfinished business for the marshals anyhow, and when we have him we’ll also have Chaney, or learn the whereabouts of his body. Bagby didn’t know which way they went, but now that we know they come through here, they couldn’t be going but one of two ways; heading north toward the Winding Stair Mountains, pushing further west. I suspect north. More to rob.

[to Mattie whilst riding along slowly]
Rooster Cogburn: I bought an eating place called The Green Frog. Started calling myself Burroughs, but I drank and picked up and my wife did not care for the company of my river
friends. She decided to go back to her first husband, he was a clerk in a hardware store. Uh, she said, “Goodbye, Reuben, a love for decency does not abide in you.” Imagine a divorced woman talking about decency. I told her, “Goodbye, Nola. Hope that little nail-selling bastard keeps you happy this time.” She took my boy with her too. Uh, he never cared for me anyway. I guess I did speak awful rough to him, I did not mean nothing by it. You would not want to see a clumsier child than Horace. I bet he broke forty cups.

[Cogburn gazes at the body of the man hanging from the tree]
Rooster Cogburn: Is it Chaney?
Mattie Ross: I would not recognize the soles of his feet.
Rooster Cogburn: Well, you’ll have to clamber up and look. I’m too old and too fat.

[whilst Mattie is climbing up the tree to look at the hanging body]
Rooster Cogburn: At The Green Frog it had one billiard table, served ladies and men both, mostly men. Tried running it myself for a while, but couldn’t keep good help and I never did learn how to buy meat. Is it him?
Mattie Ross: I believe not.
Rooster Cogburn: No! Cut him down!
Mattie Ross: Why?
Rooster Cogburn: I might know him.
[Mattie reluctantly climbs further to get closer to the body]
Rooster Cogburn: That’s when I went out to the staked plains of Texas. Shoot buffalo with Vernon Shaftoe and a Flathead Indian named Olly. Well, the Mormons, well they run Shaftoe out of Great Salt Lake City, don’t ask me what for. Call it a misunderstanding and leave it go at that. Well, big shaggies about all gone now. Damned shame. I would give three dollars right now for a pickled buffalo tongue.

[Mattie starts cutting the rope]
Mattie Ross: Why did they hang him so high?
Rooster Cogburn: Well, I don’t know. Possibly in the belief it would make him more dead.
[the rope snaps and the body drops, Cogburn turns the body over to look at it]
Rooster Cogburn: I do not know this man.

[after the Indian has taken the body of the hanged man]
Mattie Ross: Why is he taking the hanged man? Did he know him?
Rooster Cogburn: He did not. But it is a dead body, possibly worth something in trade.

Rooster Cogburn: Well my second wife, Edna, she got the notion she wanted me to be a lawyer. Bought this heavy book called Daniels on Negotiable Instruments, set me to reading it. Never could get a grip on it, I was happy enough to set it aside, leave Texas. There ain’t six trees between there and Canada, nothing else grows but has stickers on it. That’s when…
[they hear distant gunshot and stop riding]
Rooster Cogburn: I knew it.
Mattie Ross: Knew what?
Rooster Cogburn: We’re being followed. I asked that Indian to signal with a shot if someone was on our trail.
Mattie Ross: Should we be concerned, Marshal?
Rooster Cogburn: No. It’s Mr. LeBoeuf, using us as bird dogs in hopes of cutting in once we’ve flushed the prey.
Mattie Ross: Well, perhaps we could double back over our tracks, and confuse the trail in a clever way.
Rooster Cogburn: No, we will wait right here, offer our friend a warm hello, ask him where he is going.

[a rider wearing a bear’s skin and head rides towards them]
Rooster Cogburn: You are not LeBoeuf.
Bear Man: My name is Forster. I practice dentistry in the Nation. Also, veterinary arts. And medicine, on those humans that will sit still for it.
[indicating to the corpse on the horse that’s behind the Bear Man]
Rooster Cogburn: You have your work cut out for you there.
Bear Man: Traded for him with an Indian, who said he came by him honestly. I gave up two dental mirrors and a bottle of expectorant. Do either of you need medical attention?
Rooster Cogburn: No. It’s late, fixing to get cold. Do you know of anywhere to take shelter?
Bear Man: I have my bearskin. You might want to head over to the Original Greaser Bob’s. He notched a dugout into a hollow along the Carrillon River. And if you ride the river you won’t fail to see it. Greaser Bob, the Original Greaser Bob, is hunting north of the picket wire and would not begrudge its use.
Rooster Cogburn: Much obliged.
[the Bear Man tilts his head to indicate the corpse behind him]
Bear Man: I have taken his teeth. I will entertain an offer for the rest of him.

[after Cogburn and Mattie have managed to get inside the cabin]
Emmett Quincy: You said it was a man on the roof. I thought it was Potter.
Rooster Cogburn: You was always dumb, Quincy, and remain true to form.
[he stirs a pot with a wooden spoon]
Rooster Cogburn: This here’s an awful lot of sofky. You boys looking for company?
Emmett Quincy: That is our supper and breakfast both. I like a big breakfast.
Moon (The Kid): Sofky always cooks up bigger than you think.
Rooster Cogburn: Oh, and a good store of whiskey here as well. What are you boys up to, outside of cooking banquets?
Emmett Quincy: We’re just having our supper. We didn’t know who was out there weather like this. It might have been some crazy man. Anyone can say he is a marshal.
Moon (The Kid): My leg hurts.
Rooster Cogburn: I’ll bet it does.

See more True Grit Quotes

Rooster Cogburn: When was the last time you seen your old pard Ned Pepper?
Emmett Quincy: I do not know him. Who is he?
Rooster Cogburn: I’m surprised you don’t remember him. He’s a skinny fellow, nervous and quick. His lip’s all messed up.
Emmett Quincy: That don’t bring anybody to mind.
Rooster Cogburn: There is a new boy that might be running with Ned. He’s got a powder mark on his face, a black place. He calls himself Chaney, or Chelmsford sometimes. Carries a Henry rifle.
Emmett Quincy: That don’t bring anybody to mind. Black mark, I would remember that.
Rooster Cogburn: You don’t remember nothing I want to know, do you Quincy? What do you know, Moon?
Emmett Quincy: We don’t know those boys you’re looking for.
Moon (The Kid): I don’t know those boys. I always try to help out the law.
Rooster Cogburn: Well, by the time we get back to Fort Smith that leg will be swelled up tight as Dick’s hatband. It will be mortified and they will cut it off. Then if you live I’ll get you two or three years in the Federal house up in Detroit there.

Moon (The Kid): You are trying to get at me.
Rooster Cogburn: They’ll teach you to read and write up there but the rest of it won’t be so good. Them boys, that can be hard on a gimp.
Moon (The Kid): You are trying to get at me.
Rooster Cogburn: Now, you give me some good information on Ned, I’ll take you down to Bagby’s store tomorrow and get that ball taken out of your leg. Then I’ll give you three days to clear the Territory.
Emmett Quincy: We don’t know those boys you are looking for.
[Cogburn laughs]
Rooster Cogburn: That ain’t his leg.
Moon (The Kid): I would…
Emmett Quincy: Don’t you be flapping your mouth, Moon. It is best to let me do the talking.
Moon (The Kid): I would say if I knew…
Emmett Quincy: We are, we are weary trappers.

[looking over at Mattie]
Emmett Quincy: Who worked you over with the ugly stick?
Mattie Ross: The man Chaney with the marked face killed my father. He’s a whiskey drinker like you and it led to killing in the end. If you answer the marshal’s questions he will help you. I have a good lawyer at home and he will help you too.
Moon (The Kid): I am puzzled by this. Why is she here?
Emmett Quincy: Don’t you go jawing with these people, Moon. Don’t you go jawing with that runt.
Mattie Ross: I don’t like you. I hope you go to jail. My lawyer will not help you.

Moon (The Kid): My leg is giving me fits.
Rooster Cogburn: No, a young fellow like you don’t want to loose his leg. No.
Emmett Quincy: Easy now. He is trying to get at you!
Rooster Cogburn: With the truth.
Moon (The Kid): We seen Ned and Haze two days ago.
Emmett Quincy: Don’t you act the fool! If you blow I will kill you!
Moon (The Kid): I am played out. I need a doctor! We met Ned and Haze two days ago.
[Quincy grabs a knife from his boot slams it down on Moon’s hand, chopping off four fingers, then stabs him in the chest, Cogburn then shoots Quincy in the head]
Rooster Cogburn: Goddamn it!

[Moon has fallen to the floor, knife in chest]
Moon (The Kid): Oh lord, I am dying! Do something! Help me!
Rooster Cogburn: I can do nothing for you, son. Your pard has killed you and I done for him.
Moon (The Kid): Don’t leave me lying here! Don’t let the wolves rip me up!
Rooster Cogburn: I’ll see you are buried right. You tell me about Ned. Where’d you see him?
Moon (The Kid): Two days ago at Bagby’s store. They are coming here tonight to get remounts, and sofky. They just robbed the Katy Flyer at Wagoner’s Switch. I’m gone. Send the news to my brother, George Garrett. He’s a Methodist circuit rider in South Texas.
Rooster Cogburn: Should I tell him you was outlawed up?
Moon (The Kid): It don’t matter, he knows I am on the scout. I will meet him later walking the streets of Glory!
Rooster Cogburn: Now, don’t be looking for Quincy.

[whilst waiting for Ned Pepper and his gang]
Mattie Ross: What do we do when they get here?
Rooster Cogburn: They ride up, what we want is to get them all in the dugout. I’ll kill the last one that goes in, then we’ll have them in a barrel.
Mattie Ross: You will shoot him in the back?
Rooster Cogburn: It will give them to know our intentions is serious. Then I’ll call down, see if they’ll be taken alive. If they won’t I’ll shoot them as they come out. I’m hopeful that three of their party being dead will take the starch out of them.

[as they are waiting for Ned Peppers to show up]
Mattie Ross: You display great poise.
Rooster Cogburn: Uh, it’s just a turkey shoot. There was one time in New Mexico, was being pursued by seven men. I turned Bo around and taken them reins in my teeth and rode right at them boys firing them two navy sixes I carry on my saddle. Well, I guess they was all married men who loved their families as they scattered and run for home.
Mattie Ross: Well, that is hard to believe.
Rooster Cogburn: What is?
Mattie Ross: One man riding at seven.
Rooster Cogburn: Well, it’s true enough. You go for a man hard enough and fast enough, he don’t have time to think about how many is with him. He thinks about himself, how he might clear of the wrath that is about to set down on him.
Mattie Ross: Why were they pursuing you?
Rooster Cogburn: I robbed a high-interest bank. You can’t rob a thief, can you? I never robbed a citizen. Never took a man’s watch.
Mattie Ross: It is all stealing.
Rooster Cogburn: That’s the position they took in New Mexico.

[Cogburn and Mattie watch from their hiding place as a single rider approaches slowly]
Rooster Cogburn: One man. I did not figure them to send a scout.
[as the rider dismounts near the cabin, Cogburn recognizes that it’s LeBoeuf]
Rooster Cogburn: Damn. It is LeBoeuf.
Mattie Ross: Well, we have to warn him, Marshal!
[before Cogburn can do anything he sees Ned Peppers gang riding towards the cabin]
Rooster Cogburn: Too late.

[they watch as LeBoeuf encounters the approaching riders]
Mattie Ross: What do we do, Marshal?
Rooster Cogburn: We sit. What does he do?
[Cogburn looks at the other riders]
Rooster Cogburn: Him in the woolly chaps is Lucky Ned.
[as he sees LeBoeuf being roped and dragged around on a horse]
Rooster Cogburn: Well, that’s that.
[Rooster starts shooting at the riders]

[after killing the Ned Pepper’s gang]
Rooster Cogburn: Well that didn’t pan out.

[as he’s approaching a wounded LeBoeuf who’s lying on the ground moaning]
Rooster Cogburn: You managed to put a kink in my rope, pardner.
LeBoeuf: I am severely injured.
Rooster Cogburn: Yes, you got drug some.
LeBoeuf: I got also shot. By a rifle.
Rooster Cogburn: Well, that’s quite possible. The scheme did not develop as I had planned. You’ve been shot in the shoulder but the bullet passed through. What happened to your mouth?
LeBoeuf: I believe I bit myself.
Rooster Cogburn: You got couple of teeth loose and oh yeah, the tongue is bit almost through. Do you want to see if it will knit or should I just yank it free? I know a teamster who bit his tongue off being thrown from a horse. But after a time he learned to make himself more or less understood. I’ll just yank it free.

[LeBoeuf moans in agony and tries to speak as Cogburn tries to yank his tongue out]
Rooster Cogburn: What’s that now?
[LeBoeuf tries to speak]
Rooster Cogburn: What’s that now?
[he takes his hand out of LeBoeuf’s mouth]
LeBoeuf: It’ll, it will knit.
Rooster Cogburn: Ah, very well. It’s impossible to bind a tongue wound. Too bad. We just ran across a doctor…
Mattie Ross: Marshal?
Rooster Cogburn: …of sorts but I do not know where he was headed.
LeBoeuf: I saw him too. That’s how I came to be here.
Mattie Ross: Neither of these men are Chaney.
Rooster Cogburn: I know it. I know them both. That ugly one is Coke Hayes. Him uglier still is Clement Parmalee. Parmalee and his brothers have a silver claim in the Winding Stair Mountains and I’ll bet that’s where Lucky Ned’s gang is waiting. Now, we’ll sleep here, follow in the morning.
Mattie Ross: Well, we promised to bury the poor soul inside.
Rooster Cogburn: Ground is too hard. If these men wanted a decent burial they should have got themselves kilt in summer.

[talking to her horse as she’s feeding him apples]
Mattie Ross: Sleep well, Little Blackie. I have a notion that tomorrow we will reach our object. We are hot on the trail. It seems that we will overtake Tom Chaney in the Winding Stair Mountains. I would not want to be in his shoes.

LeBoeuf: As I understand it, Chaney, or Chelmsford, as he called himself in Texas, shot the senator’s dog. When the senator remonstrated Chelmsford shot him as well. Now, you could argue that the shooting of the dog was merely an instant of malum prohibitum, but the shooting of a senator is indubitably an instant of malum in se.
Rooster Cogburn: Malla-men what?
Mattie Ross: Malum in se. The distinction is between an act that is wrong in itself, and an act that is wrong only according to our laws and mores. It is Latin.
Rooster Cogburn: I’m struck that LeBoeuf has been shot, trampled, and nearly severs his tongue, not only does it not cease to talk but spills the banks of English.
LeBoeuf: I was within three hundred yards of Chelmsford once. The closest I have been. With the Sharp’s carbine, that is within range. But I was mounted, and had the choice of
firing off-hand, or dismounting to shoot from rest, which would allow Chelmsford to augment the distance. I fired mounted, and fired wide.
Rooster Cogburn: You could not hit a man at three hundred yards if your gun was resting on Gibraltar.
LeBoeuf: The Sharp’s carbine is an instrument of uncanny power and precision.
Rooster Cogburn: I have no doubt that the gun is sound.

[whilst riding Cogburn is singing and drinking, LeBoeuf and Mattie are riding behind him]
LeBoeuf: I do not believe he slept.
Rooster Cogburn: Fort Smith is a healthy distance, LeBoeuf, but I would encourage the creature you ride to head center. Out here a one-armed man looks like easy prey.
LeBoeuf: And a one-eyed man, who can’t shoot? Why don’t you turn back, Cogburn?
Rooster Cogburn: Ah, I will do fine. I know where the Parmalee’s claim is. I am uninjured, well provisioned, and we agreed to separate.
LeBoeuf: In conscious you cannot site our agreement. You are the one who shot me.
Mattie Ross: Mr. LeBoeuf has a point, Marshal. It is an unfair leg-up in any competition to shoot your opposite number.
Rooster Cogburn: God damn it! I do not accept it as a given that I did shoot LeBoeuf. There were plenty of guns going off.
LeBoeuf: I heard the rifle and I felt the ball. You missed your shot, Cogburn, admit it.
Rooster Cogburn: Missed my shot!
LeBoeuf: You are more handicapped without the eye than I without the arm.
Rooster Cogburn: I can hit a gnat’s eye at ninety yards!
[he throws his empty whiskey bottle into the air and fires his gun but he misses]

[after failing to shoot the whiskey bottle, he shoots a third time and the bottle shatters]
Rooster Cogburn: That Chinaman is running them cheap shells on me again.
LeBoeuf: I thought you were going to say the sun was in your eyes. That is to say, your eye.

[after LeBoeuf shoots the cornbread that Cogburn had thrown to shoot at the same time]
LeBoeuf: There.
Rooster Cogburn: There?! My bullet!
LeBoeuf: Your bullet? If you hit what you aim at, explain my shoulder!
Mattie Ross: Gentlemen, shooting cornbread out here on the prairie is getting us no closer to the Ned Pepper gang.
Rooster Cogburn: One more, this will prove it. Please hold fire!
[he tosses a corn dodger and fires again and again missing the shot]

[at their camp Mattie tries to feed LeBoeuf]
LeBoeuf: Cogburn does not want me eating out of his store.
Mattie Ross: That is silly. You have not eaten the whole day, and it is my store not his.
Rooster Cogburn: Let him starve! He does not track! He does not shoot, except at foodstuffs!
LeBoeuf: That was your initiative.
Rooster Cogburn: He does not contribute! He is a man who walks in front of bullets!
Mattie Ross: Mr. LeBoeuf drew single-handed upon the Lucky Ned Pepper Gang while we fired safely from cover.
Rooster Cogburn: We?
Mattie Ross: It is unfair to indict a man when his jaw is swollen and tongue mangled and who is therefore unable to rise to his own defense!
LeBoeuf: I can speak for myself. I am hardly obliged to answer the ravings of a drunkard. It is beneath me.

[he rises to gather his things]
LeBoeuf: I shall make my own camp elsewhere. It is you who have nothing to offer, Cogburn. A sad picture indeed. This is no longer a manhunt, it is a debauch. The Texas
Ranger presses on alone.
Rooster Cogburn: Take the girl. I bow out!
LeBoeuf: A fine thing to decide once you have brought her into the middle of the Choctaw Nation.
Rooster Cogburn: I bow out! I wash my hands!
Mattie Ross: Gentlemen, we cannot fall out in this fashion. Not so close to our goal, with Tom Chaney nearly in hand!
Rooster Cogburn: In hand?! If he is not in a shallow grave, somewhere between here and Fort Smith, he is gone! Long gone! Thanks to Mr. LeBoeuf, we missed our shot! We have barked, and the birds have flown! Gone, gone, gone! Lucky Ned and his cohort, gone! Your fifty dollars, gone! Gone the whiskey, seized in evidence! The trail is cold, if ever there was one! I’m a foolish old man who has been drawn into a wild goose chase by a harpy in trousers and a nincompoop! Well, Mr. LeBoeuf, he can wander the Choctaw Nation for as long as he likes; perhaps the local Indians will take him in and honor his gibberings by making him Chief! You, sister, may go where you like! Our engagement is terminated! I bow out!

Mattie Ross: I am going with you.
LeBoeuf: Oh, that is not possible.
Mattie Ross: Have I held you back? Look, I have a Colt’s dragoon revolver which I know how to use, and I would be no more of a burden to you than I was to the marshal.
LeBoeuf: That is not my worry. You have earned your spurs, that is clear enough. You have been a regular old hand on the trail. But Cogburn is right, even if I would not give him the
satisfaction of conceding it. The trail is cold, and I am considerably diminished.
Mattie Ross: How can you give up now, after the many months you’ve dedicated to finding Chaney? You have shown great determination. I misjudged you. I picked the wrong man.
LeBoeuf: I would go on in your company if there were clear way to go. But we’d be striking out blindly. Chelmsford is gone, we chased him right off the map. There is nothing for it. I’m bound for Texas, it’s time for you to go home too. The marshal, when he sobers, is your way back.
Mattie Ross: I will not go back. Not without Chaney, dead or alive.
LeBoeuf: I misjudged you as well. I extend my hand.
[he extends his hand, Mattie doesn’t take it]
Mattie Ross: Mr. LeBoeuf! Please!
[he remains with hand extended, she finally gives him her hand and they shake]
LeBoeuf: Adios!
[he turns and rides away]

[whilst getting water from the stream Mattie notices Chaney on the other side of the river]
Tom Chaney: I know you. Your name is Mattie. Well, you’re little Mattie the bookkeeper. Isn’t that something.
Mattie Ross: Yes, and I know you, Tom Chaney.
Tom Chaney: What are you doing out here?
Mattie Ross: I came to fetch some water.
[Mattie pulls the flour sack from her coat pocket]
Tom Chaney: Oh, no I mean what are you doing in these mountains here?
Mattie Ross: Well, I have not been formally deputized but I am acting as an agent for Marshal Reuben Cogburn and Judge Parker’s court.

[Mattie gets the Colt’s Dragoon out of the sack and points it at Chaney]
Mattie Ross: I have come to take you back to Fort Smith.
[Chaney just looks at the gun]
Tom Chaney: Well I will not go. How do you like that?
Mattie Ross: There is a posse of officers up there who will force you to go.
Tom Chaney: Well, that is interesting news. And how many is up there?
Mattie Ross: Right around fifty and they are all well armed and they mean business. What I want you to do now is come on across the creek and walk in front of me up that hill.
Tom Chaney: I think I will oblige the officers to come after me.
Mattie Ross: Well, If you refuse to go I will have to shoot you.
Tom Chaney: Oh? Well then you had better cock your piece.

[Mattie tries to pull the hammer back]
Tom Chaney: All the way back. Till it locks.
[she pulls the hammer back further until it locks]
Mattie Ross: I know how to do it. You will not go with me?
Tom Chaney: No. It’s just the other way around. You’re going with me. I will…
[Mattie fires, Chaney is shot in the chest and staggers a step back]
Tom Chaney: I did not think you would do it.
Mattie Ross: Well, what do you think now?
[Chaney is visibly in pain now]
Tom Chaney: Oh, one of my short ribs is broken.
Mattie Ross: You killed my father when he was trying to help you. I have one of the gold pieces you stole from him. Now give me the other.
Tom Chaney: It’s gone right through.

[Cogburn shouts from the bushes]
Rooster Cogburn: Mattie!
Mattie Ross: I am down here!
Tom Chaney: Now I am shot by a child.
[Mattie shouts to Cogburn]
Mattie Ross: Chaney is taken into custody!
[Chaney walks towards Mattie she shoots the gun but it doesn’t fire, Chaney grabs Mattie and slaps her]
Mattie Ross: Help me!
[Chaney is dragging Mattie alongside him]
Rooster Cogburn: Mattie!
[two men burst through the brush from Chaney’s side of the river and start shooting]
Mattie Ross: Marshal!

Lucky Ned Pepper: Who all is down there?
Mattie Ross: Marshal Cogburn and fifty more officers.
[Ned throws Mattie to the ground, he puts his boot on her neck and points his gun at her]
Lucky Ned Pepper: You tell me another lie and I’ll stove your head in!
Mattie Ross: Just the marshal.
Lucky Ned Pepper: Rooster!
[he shouts out]
Lucky Ned Pepper: Cogburn! Do you hear me?
[Cogburn doesn’t answer]
Lucky Ned Pepper: You answer me, Rooster! I will kill this girl! You know I will do it!

[we hear Cogburn’s voice]
Rooster Cogburn: The girl is nothing to me! She’s a runaway from Arkansas!
Lucky Ned Pepper: That is all very well! Do you advise that I kill her?
[we hear Cogburn’s voice again]
Rooster Cogburn: Well, do what you think is best, Ned! She is nothing to me but a lost child!
[Ned continues to point his gun at Mattie]
Rooster Cogburn: Think it over first.
Lucky Ned Pepper: I have already thought it over! You get mounted double fast! If I see you riding over that bald ridge to the northwest I will spare the girl. You have five minutes!
Rooster Cogburn: There will be a party of marshals here soon, Ned! Let me have the girl and Chaney and I will mislead them for six hours!
Lucky Ned Pepper: Too thin, Rooster! Too thin! Your five minutes is running! No more talk!
[he pulls Mattie to her feet]

[Ned leads Mattie to their camp]
Mattie Ross: Can I have some of that bacon?
Lucky Ned Pepper: You can help yourself. Have some of the coffee.
Mattie Ross: I do not drink coffee. I am fourteen.
Lucky Ned Pepper: Well, we do not have buttermilk. And we do not have bread. We are poorly supplied.
[Chaney comes up behind Ned]
Tom Chaney: Where is she?
[to Mattie]
Lucky Ned Pepper: What are you doing here?
Tom Chaney: I will wring your scrawny neck!
[to Chaney]
Lucky Ned Pepper: You let that go!

Lucky Ned Pepper: What happened, huh?
Mattie Ross: I will tell you what when you will see that I am in the right. Tom Chaney there shot my father to death in Fort Smith and robbed him of two gold pieces and stole his mare. I was informed Mr. Cogburn had grit and I hired him to find the murderer. A few minutes ago I came upon Chaney watering the horses. He would not be taken in charge and I shot him. If I had killed him I would not be now in this fix. My revolver misfired.
Lucky Ned Pepper: That will do it. It will embarrass you every time. Most girls like to play pretties, but you like guns do you?
Mattie Ross: I do not care a thing in the world about guns. If I did I would have one that worked.
Tom Chaney: I was shot from ambush, Ned. Them horses was blowing and making noise. It was that officer that got me.
Mattie Ross: How can you sit there and tell such a big story?
Tom Chaney: That pit is a hundred feet deep and I will throw you in. And I will leave you to scream and rot! Huh, how do you like that?
Mattie Ross: No you won’t. This man will not let you have your way. He is your boss and you have to do as he tells you.

[Ned looks through his spyglass and sees Cogburn on the ridge of the other side of river]
Lucky Ned Pepper: Was that Rooster waylaid us night before last?
Mattie Ross: It was Marshal Cogburn and myself.
Lucky Ned Pepper: You and Cogburn, quite the posse.

Lucky Ned Pepper: What happened to Quincy, and The Kid?
Mattie Ross: They are both dead. I was in the very middle of it. It was a terrible thing to see.

Mattie Ross: Do you need a good Lawyer?
Lucky Ned Pepper: I need a good judge. What about Coke Hayes, the old fellow shot off his horse?
Mattie Ross: Dead as well. His depredations have come to an end.
Lucky Ned Pepper: Your friend Rooster does not collect many prisoners.
Mattie Ross: He is not my friend. He has abandoned me to a congress of louts.
Lucky Ned Pepper: You do not varnish your opinion.

[as they get ready to leave their camp]
Tom Chaney: Let us cut up the winnings from the Katie Flyer.
Lucky Ned Pepper: They’ll be time for that at The Old Place.
Tom Chaney: I will mount the grey.
Lucky Ned Pepper: I have other plans for you.
Tom Chaney: Must I double-mount with the Doctor?
Doctor: No!
Lucky Ned Pepper: No, it’ll be too chancy with two men up if it comes to a race. Tom, you wait here with the girl. When we reach Ma’s house I’ll send Carroll back with a fresh mount. You will be out by dark, we will meet you at The Old Place.
Tom Chaney: I do not like that. Let me ride with you, Ned, just out of here anyway.
Lucky Ned Pepper: We’re short a horse.
Tom Chaney: Marshals will come swarming.
Lucky Ned Pepper: Hours, if they come here at all. They’ll think that we’ve all gone.
Mattie Ross: I am not staying here by myself with Tom Chaney.
Lucky Ned Pepper: That’s the way I will have it.
Mattie Ross: He will kill me. You heard him say it. He’s killed my father and now you will let him kill me.
Lucky Ned Pepper: He will do no such thing. Tom, you know the crossing at Cypress Forks, near the log meeting house? When you’re mounted you take the girl and leave her there. Do you understand, Tom? If any harm comes to that child you do not get paid.

[after Ned and his men have left camp]
Tom Chaney: Everything is against me.
Mattie Ross: You have no reason to whine. If you act as the bandit chief instructed, and no harm comes to me, you will get your winnings at The Old Place.
Tom Chaney: Lucky Ned has left me, knowing I am sure to be caught when I leave on foot. I must think over my position and how I may improve it.
Mattie Ross: Where is the second California gold piece?
[Chaney stares silently into the camp fire]
Mattie Ross: What have you done with Papa’s mare?
Tom Chaney: Keep still!

Mattie Ross: Are you thinking about The Old Place? Look here, if you will let me go, I will swear to it in an affidavit and once you are brought to justice it may go easier on you.
Tom Chaney: I tell you I can do better than that. I need no affidavit.
[he rises]
Tom Chaney: All I need is your silence.
[he suddenly grabs hold of Mattie by the throat, she tumbles backward, Chaney takes his knife and hold it against her throat]
Tom Chaney: Your father was a busybody like you. In honesty, I do not regret shooting him. He thought Tom Chaney was small. And you would give me an affidavit. You are all against me. Everything is…
[suddenly he gets whacked in the head by LeBoeuf]

[after he’s knocked out Chaney]
LeBoeuf: So that is Chelmsford. Strange to be so close to him at last.
Mattie Ross: Mr. LeBoeuf, how is it that you are here?
LeBoeuf: I heard a shot and went down to the river.
[he helps Mattie get up]
LeBoeuf: Cogburn outlined a plan. Mind your footing, there’s a pit there. His part, I fear is rash. He returns for Lucky Ned.

Lucky Ned Pepper: Well, Rooster, will you give us the road?
[LeBoeuf and Mattie watch from above as Cogburn advance on Ned and his gang]
Mattie Ross: One against four. It is ill advised!
LeBoeuf: He would not be dissuaded.

Rooster Cogburn: How many men is with the girl?
Lucky Ned Pepper: Just Chaney. Our agreement is in force. She was in excellent health when last I saw her.
Rooster Cogburn: Farrel, I want you and your brother to stand clear. You as well, Doctor. I have no interest in you today.
Lucky Ned Pepper: What is your intention, Rooster? Do you think one on four is a dogfall?
Rooster Cogburn: I mean to kill you in one minute, Ned. Or see you hanged in Fort Smith at Judge Parker’s convenience. Which will you have?
Lucky Ned Pepper: I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man!
Rooster Cogburn: Fill your hand, you son of a bitch!
[he charges towards Ned and his gang]

[as they watch Lucky Ned and his gang charge upon Cogburn and start shooting]
Mattie Ross: Shoot them, Mr. LeBoeuf!
LeBoeuf: Too far, moving too fast.

[Cogburn has been shot of his horse and Lucky Ned has been shot but still sat on his horse]
Lucky Ned Pepper: Well Rooster, I’m shot to pieces. It seems neither of us is to see Judge Parker.

[Mattie whoops as LeBoeuf shoot and kills LeBoeuf]
Mattie Ross: Some bully shot! That was four hundred yards, at least!
LeBoeuf: Well, the Sharp’s carbine is a…
[just then a rock is brought down on his head by Chaney]

[Mattie gets hold of LeBoeuf’s rifle and points it at Chaney]
Mattie Ross: Stand up, Tom Chaney!
[Chaney stands, Mattie fires the rifle catching Chaney in the chest, he’s thrown back off the ledge]

[Mattie’s fallen into the pit after shooting Chaney, she looks up and see a small hole of daylight]
Mattie Ross: Mr. LeBoeuf! Are you alive!
[no answer]

[whilst stuck in the pit Mattie hears Cogburn’s voice]
Rooster Cogburn: Are you there?
Mattie Ross: I am here!
Rooster Cogburn: Can you clamber out?
Mattie Ross: I cannot! There are snakes!
Rooster Cogburn: They awake?
Mattie Ross: Yes!

[a small snake bites Mattie on her hand]
Mattie Ross: Ahh! I am bit!
[Cogburn shoot at the snake a few times and climbs down next to Mattie]
Mattie Ross: Does Mr. LeBoeuf survive?
Rooster Cogburn: He does. Even a blow to the head could silence him for only a few short minutes. Where are you bit?
[she shows her hand]
Rooster Cogburn: Look away now.
[he makes two slices in the flesh and sucks out the blood]

[after LeBoeuf has helped them up out of the pit, Cogburn hands Mattie to LeBoeuf]
Rooster Cogburn: I’ll send help for you as soon as I can. Don’t wander off.
[LeBoeuf puts Mattie on Cogburn’s horse]
Mattie Ross: We are not leaving him!
[Cogburn mounts up behind to Mattie on the horse]
Rooster Cogburn: I must get you to a doc, sis, or you’re not going to to make it.
[to LeBoeuf]
Rooster Cogburn: I am in your debt for that shot, pard.
LeBoeuf: Never doubt the Texas Ranger.
[Cogburn rides off and LeBoeuf shouts after]
LeBoeuf: Ever stalwart!

[after they’ve been riding nonstop for several hours]
Mattie Ross: We must stop. Little Blackie is played out.
Rooster Cogburn: We have miles yet.
[to Little Blackie]
Rooster Cogburn: Come on, you!
Mattie Ross: No!
[the horse whines but keeps going]
Rooster Cogburn: That’s it! Come on now!
Mattie Ross: No! Stop!

Mattie Ross: He is getting away.
Rooster Cogburn: Who’s getting away, sis?
Mattie Ross: Chaney.
[Little Blackie suddenly stops and falls to the ground clearly no longer able to go on]

[after walking for several hours with Mattie in his arms, Cogburn stops in front of a house and takes out his gun and fires into the air]
Rooster Cogburn: I am grown old.
[pants heavily]

40-Year-Old Mattie: [voice over] A quarter of a century is a long time.
[we see a train stopping and a woman, older Mattie, steps down onto the station]
40-Year-Old Mattie: [voice over] By the time we reached Bagby’s door my hand had turned black. I was not awake but I lost the arm. The marshal had stayed with me, I was told, till I was out of danger. But he departed before I came round. Once home, I wrote him of an invitation to come by the next time he found himself near Yell County and collect the fifty dollars I still owed him. I did not hear back from Marshal Cogburn and he did not appear. Then, one day I received a note from the marshal with a flyer enclosed. He said he was traveling with The Wild West Show, getting older and fatter, but I like to come and visit him when the show came to Memphis and swap stories with an old trail mate.
[we see older Mattie walking up to The Wild West Show banner]
40-Year-Old Mattie: [voice over] He would understand if the journey was too long. Brief though his note was, it was rife with misspellings.

[after older Mattie enters The tents of The Wild West Show]
Cole Younger: Yes’m, I am Cole Younger. This is Mr. James. It grieves me to tell you that you have missed Rooster. He passed away, what, three days ago, when the show was in Jonesboro Arkansas. Buried him there in the confederate cemetery. Reuben had a complaint what he referred to as “night hoss” and I believe the warm weather was too much for him. We had some lively times. What was the nature of your acquaintance?
40-Year-Old Mattie: I knew the marshal long ago. We too had lively times. Thank you, Mr. Younger.
[as she turns to go she addresses Frank James who’s been staring at her]
40-Year-Old Mattie: Keep your seat, trash.

[last lines]
40-Year-Old Mattie: [voice over] I had the body removed to our plot and I have visited it over the years.
[we see older Mattie at the cemetery looking at Cogburn’s grave stone]
40-Year-Old Mattie: [voice over] No doubt people talk about that. They say, well she hardly knew the man. Isn’t she a cranky old maid. It is true I have not married, I never had time to fool with it. I heard nothing more of the Texas officer, LeBoeuf. If he is yet alive I would be pleased to hear from him. I judge he would be in his seventies now and nearer eighty than seventy. I expect some of the starch has gone out of that cowlick. Time just gets away from us.

Total Quotes: 99