Quotes from book
True Grit

True Grit
Charles Portis

True Grit is a 1968 novel by Charles Portis that was first published as a 1968 serial in The Saturday Evening Post. The novel is told from the perspective of a woman named Mattie Ross, who recounts the time when she was 14 and sought retribution for the murder of her father by a scoundrel, Tom Chaney. It is considered by some critics to be "one of the great American novels."The novel was adapted for the screenplay of the 1969 film True Grit starring Kim Darby, Glen Campbell, and John Wayne. Six years later, in 1975, Wayne reprised his Academy Award-winning role as the tough hard drinking one-eyed lawman in the sequel film Rooster Cogburn. In 2010, Joel and Ethan Coen wrote and directed another film adaption of the same name. In November 2010, The Overlook Press published a movie tie-in edition of the second film version of True Grit.

“I never seen anybody from Texas I couldn't shade. Get cross-ways of me, LaBoeuf, and you will think a thousand of brick has fell on you. You will wisht you had been at the Alamo with Travis.”

Charles Portis book True Grit

Source: True Grit (1968), Chapter 5, p. 94 : 'Rooster Cogburn' to 'LaBoeuf'

“I have left off crying, and giggling as well. Now make up your mind. I don't care anything for all this talk. You told me what your price for the job was and I have come up with it. Here is the money. 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 I have seen you kill a gray rat. All the rest has been talk. 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 boardinghouse.”

Charles Portis book True Grit

Source: True Grit (1968), Chapter 5, pp. 82-83 : 'Mattie Ross' to 'Rooster Cogburn'

“If you want anything done right you will have to see to it yourself every time.”

Charles Portis book True Grit

Source: True Grit (1968), Chapter 5, p. 75 : thoughts of 'Mattie Ross'

“I would not put a thief in my mouth to steal my brains.”

Charles Portis book True Grit

Source: True Grit (1968), Chapter 3, p. 59 : 'Mattie Ross,' refusing 'Rooster Cogburn's' offer of a drink of whiskey

“You must pay for everything in this world one way and another. There is nothing free except the Grace of God. You cannot earn that or deserve it.”

Charles Portis book True Grit

Source: True Grit (1968), Chapter 3, p. 37 : thoughts of 'Mattie Ross'

“I know what they said even if they would not say it to my face. People love to talk. They love to slander you if you have any substance. They say I love nothing but money and the Presbyterian Church and that is why I never married.”

Charles Portis book True Grit

Source: True Grit (1968), Chapter 7, pp. 214-215 : thoughts of 'Mattie Ross'

“The wicked flee when none pursueth.”

Charles Portis book True Grit

Source: True Grit

“You do not think much of me, do you, Cogburn?
I don't think about you at all when your mouth is closed.”

Charles Portis book True Grit

Source: True Grit (1968), Chapter 6, p. 151 : exchange between 'LaBoeuf' and 'Rooster Cogburn'

“Nothing I like to do pays well.”

Charles Portis book True Grit

Source: True Grit (1968), Chapter 6, p. 141 : 'Rooster Cogburn' to 'Mattie Ross'

“Lookin' back is a bad habit.”

Charles Portis book True Grit

Source: True Grit

“There is no knowing what is in a man's heart.”

Charles Portis book True Grit

Source: True Grit

“Time just gets away from us.”

Charles Portis book True Grit

Source: True Grit (1968), Chapter 7, p. 215 : thoughts of 'Mattie Ross'

“We must each of us bear our own misfortunes.”

Charles Portis book True Grit

Source: True Grit (1968), Chapter 3, p. 32 : 'Colonel Stonehill'

“I had not the strength nor the inclination to bandy words with a drunkard. What have you done when you have bested a fool?”

Charles Portis book True Grit

Source: True Grit (1968), Chapter 6, p. 167 : thoughts of 'Mattie Ross'

“As he drank, little brown drops of coffee clung to his mustache like dew. Men will live like billy goats if they are let alone.”

Charles Portis book True Grit

Source: True Grit (1968), Chapter 5, p. 78 : thoughts of 'Mattie Ross'

“I have known some horses and a good many more pigs who I believe harbored evil intent in their hearts. I will go further and say all cats are wicked, though often useful. Who has not seen Satan in their sly faces?”

Charles Portis book True Grit

Source: True Grit (1968), Chapter 3, p. 29 : thoughts of 'Mattie Ross'

“I have since learned that Judge Isaac Parker watched all his hangings from an upper window in the Courthouse. I suppose he did this from a sense of duty. There is no knowing what is in a man's heart.”

Charles Portis book True Grit

Source: True Grit (1968), Chapter 2, p. 20 : thoughts of 'Mattie Ross'

“If in four months I could not find Tom Chaney with a mark on his face like banished Cain I would not undertake to advise others how to do it.”

Charles Portis book True Grit

Source: True Grit (1968), Chapter 4, p. 72 : 'Mattie Ross' to 'LaBoeuf'

“I have never been one to flinch or crawfish when faced with an unpleasant task.”

Charles Portis book True Grit

Source: True Grit (1968), Chapter 2, p. 20 : thoughts of 'Mattie Ross'

“Most girls like play pretties, but you like guns, don’t you?
I don't care a thing in the world about guns. If I did I would have one that worked.”

Charles Portis book True Grit

Source: True Grit (1968), Chapter 7, p. 178 : exchange between 'Lucky Ned Pepper' and 'Mattie Ross'

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