Kim Darby credited as playing...
Mattie Ross
- Rooster Cogburn: They don't call him "Lucky" Ned Pepper for nothing.
- Mattie Ross: That man gave his life for him and he didn't even look back.
- Rooster Cogburn: Looking back is a bad habit.
- [last lines]
- Mattie Ross: Trust you to buy another tall horse.
- Rooster Cogburn: Yeah. He's not as game as Beau, but Stonehill says he can jump a four rail fence.
- Mattie Ross: You are too old and fat to be jumping horses.
- Rooster Cogburn: Well, come see a fat old man some time!
- [jumps the fence and rides away]
- Rooster Cogburn: Why, by God, girl, that's a Colt's Dragoon! You're no bigger than a corn nubbin, what're you doing with all this pistol?
- Mattie Ross: It belonged to my father, he carried it bravely in the war, and I intend to kill Tom Chaney with it if the law fails to do so.
- Rooster Cogburn: Well, this'll sure get the job done if you can find a fence post to rest it on while you take aim.
- Rooster Cogburn: Give me your cup.
- Mattie Ross: I don't drink coffee, thank you.
- Rooster Cogburn: Well, now, what do you drink?
- Mattie Ross: I'm partial to cold buttermilk.
- Rooster Cogburn: Well, we ain't got none of that. We ain't got no lemonade neither!
- Mattie Ross: You never told me you had a wife.
- Rooster Cogburn: Oh, well, I didn't have her long. My friends was a pack of river rats and she didn't crave their society so she up and left me and went back to her first husband who was clerkin' in a hardware store in Paducah. "Goodbye, Reuben," she says, "the love of decency does not abide in you!" That's a dee-vorced woman talkin' for you, about decency. Well, I told her. I said, "Goodbye, Nola, and I hope that nail-sellin' bastard makes you happy this time!"
- Mattie Ross: Did you have any children?
- Rooster Cogburn: There was a boy. Nola taken him with her. He never liked me anyway. A clumsier child you'll never see than Horace; I bet he broke 40 cup.
- Mattie Ross: There's an old saw that says: One white foot buy 'em, two white feet try 'em, three white feet be on the sly, four white feet pass 'em by.
- Mattie Ross: Who's the best marshal they have?
- Sheriff: Bill Waters is the best tracker. The meanest one is Rooster Cogburn, a pitiless man, double tough, fear don't enter into his thinking. I'd have to say L.T. Quinn is the straightest, he brings his prisoners in alive.
- Mattie Ross: Where would I find this Rooster?
- Sheriff: He'll be at the federal court this afternoon, he's bringing in a load of prisoners from the territories.
- [LeBoeuf is spanking Mattie]
- Mattie Ross: Are you gonna let him do this?
- Rooster Cogburn: I don't believe I will. Drop that switch, LaBoeuf. Put it down, I said. You're enjoying it too much.
- LaBoeuf: You'll find I go ahead with what I start.
- Rooster Cogburn: [Rooster draws and cocks his pistol] You do and it'll be the biggest mistake YOU ever made, you Texas brush-popper!
- Mattie Ross: [watching Rooster load his revolver] Why do you keep that one chamber empty?
- Rooster Cogburn: So I won't shoot my foot off.
- Mattie Ross: [Rooster and LaBoeuf gallop away from the ferry, leaving Mattie behind] Those horses can't get away from Little Blackie - they're loaded down with fat men and iron.
- LaBoeuf: A little earlier I gave some thought to stealin' a kiss from you, although you are very young... and you're unattractive to boot. But now I'm of a mind to give you five or six good licks with my belt.
- Mattie Ross: Well, one would be as unpleasant as the other.
- Mattie Ross: I'm here to take you back to Fort Smith and hang you.
- Tom Chaney: And I think I will not go, now how do you like that?
- Mattie Ross: Do you know a Marshal Rooster Cogburn?
- Col. G. Stonehill: Most people around here have heard of Rooster Cogburn and some people live to regret it. I would not be surprised to learn that he's a relative of yours.
- [at the camp, Mattie tastes the water]
- Mattie Ross: That tastes like iron.
- LaBoeuf: You're lucky to be where water's so handy. I've seen the time I've drank out of a filthy hoofprint - and was glad to get it.
- Rooster Cogburn: If ever I meet one of you Texas waddies who ain't drunk water from a hoofprint, I think I'll... I'll shake their hand or buy 'em a Daniel Webster cigar.
- [points to LaBoeuf's shaggy horse]
- Rooster Cogburn: How long you boys down there been mounted on sheep?
- Mattie Ross: Now I know you can drink whiskey and I saw you kill a rat, but all the rest has been talk. I'm not paying for talk. I can get all the talk I need at the Monarch Boarding House.
- Rooster Cogburn: I ought to paddle your rump!
- Mattie Ross: I don't know how you propose to do that from that hog wallow you're sunk into. If I smelled as bad as you I wouldn't live near people.
- Ned Pepper: [laughs] They will do it. Most girls like little play pretties, but you like guns, don't you?
- Mattie Ross: If I did I'd have one that worked.
- [Mattie returns later to buy a pony from Col. Stonehill]
- Col. G. Stonehill: Do you entertain plans of ever leaving this city?
- Mattie Ross: Yes, I'm off early tomorrow morning for the Indian nation. Marshal Rooster Cogburn and I are going after the murderer, Tom Chaney.
- Col. G. Stonehill: Cogburn. How did you light on that greasy vagabond?
- Mattie Ross: They say he has grit. I wanted a man with grit.
- Col. G. Stonehill: Well, I suppose he has that. He's a notorious thumper. He's not a man I would care to share a bed with.
- Mattie Ross: Nor would I.