Mattie Ross: Who's the best marshal?
Sheriff: I'll have to weigh that. William Waters is the best tracker. He's 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. Loves to pull a cork... The best is probably L.T. Quinn; he brings his
prisoners in alive. Now, he might let one slip by now and again, but he believes that even the worst of men is entitled to a fair shake.
Mattie Ross: Where can I find this Rooster?
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! 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.
Rooster Cogburn:
The jakes is occupied. And will be for some time.
LaBoeuf: I am not accustomed to so large a fire. In Texas, we'll make do with a fire of little more than twigs... 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.
Mattie Ross: [LaBoeuf is whipping her] Are you going to let him do this, Marshal?
Rooster Cogburn: [watches for a moment] No, I don't believe I will. Put your switch away, LaBoeuf.
LaBoeuf: I aim to finish what I started!
Rooster Cogburn: It'll be the biggest mistake you ever made, you Texas brush-popper.
[aims gun at LaBoeuf]
Rooster Cogburn: I'm a foolish old man who's been drawn into a wild goose chase by a harpie in trousers and a nincompoop.
Emmett Quincy: Don't you go flappin' your gums, Moon! If you blow, I will kill you!
Moon: I'm played out, Quincy! We seen Ned and Hayes two days ago...
[Quincy draws a boot knife and cuts Moon's fingers off, then stabs him in the heart. Rooster immediately shoots Quincy in the face]
Rooster Cogburn: Goddamn it.
Mattie Ross: [Discussing the price of cotton] We got most of our cotton in early. We got 12 and a half cents a pound in Little Rock.
Col. Stonehill: Then I suggest you take the rest of your crop to Little Rock to sell.
Mattie Ross: This being closer, I though I might check on the price in Ft. Smith while I was here.
Col. Stonehill: Did you come all this way to inform me of the price of cotton in Little Rock?
Rooster Cogburn: [after singing for a long time] That was "Johnny in the Low Ground." There are very few fiddle tunes I have not heard. Once heard they are locked in my mind forever. It is a sadness to me that I have sausage fingers that cannot crowd onto a fretboard... Little fat girls at a cotillion. "Soldier's Joy"!
[sings more]
LaBoeuf: [to
Mattie] I don't believe he slept.