Mattie Ross: I hope you don't think I'm going to keep you in whiskey?
Rooster Cogburn: I don't buy that, I confiscate it. And a touch of it wouldn't do you any harm against the night air!
Mattie Ross: I would not put a thief in my mouth to steal my brains!
Rooster Cogburn: Well, it's the real article! Genuine, double-rectified bust head. Aged in the keg.


--John Wayne (as Rooster Cogburn) in True Grit

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]


--John Wayne (as Rooster Cogburn) in True Grit

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.


--John Wayne (as Rooster Cogburn) in True Grit

[after LaBoeuf pulls Rooster and Mattie from the snake pit, he collapses off his horse; they go to him but it's too late]
Rooster Cogburn: Texican... saved my neck twice. Once after he was dead.


--John Wayne (as Rooster Cogburn) in True Grit

[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?


--John Wayne (as Rooster Cogburn) in True Grit

[Brad Jorgenson takes a small boulder and attempts to crush the skull of a dead Comanche warrior]
Reverend Clayton: Jorgenson!
Ethan: Why don't you finish the job?
[shoots out the eyes of the Comanche warrior]
Reverend Clayton: What good did that do ya?
Ethan: By what you preach, none. But what that Comanche believes, ain't got no eyes, he can't enter the spirit-land. Has to wander forever between the winds.You get it, Reverend.
Ethan: [to Martin] Come on, blanket-head!


--John Wayne (as Ethan Edwards) in The Searchers

[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!


--John Wayne (as Rooster Cogburn) in True Grit

[Mattie comes to get Rooster and finds him talking with LaBoeuf]
Mattie Ross: This man wants to take Chaney back to Texas. That's not what I want.
Rooster Cogburn: He wants him caught and punished - so do you.
Mattie Ross: I want Tom Chaney to hang for killing my father. It's little to me how many dogs and senators he killed in Texas.
Rooster Cogburn: You can tell him to his face, you can spit in his eye, you can make him eat sand out of the road, you can shoot him in the foot and I'll hold him for you - but first we gotta catch him.


--John Wayne (as Rooster Cogburn) in True Grit

[Reverend Clayton delivers a prayer at the Edwards' funeral for Aaron, Martha, and Ben]
Ethan: Put an amen to it!
Reverend Clayton: I ain't finished yet.
Ethan: There's no more time for praying! AMEN!


--John Wayne (as Ethan Edwards) in The Searchers

[Rooster confronts the four outlaws across the field]
Ned Pepper: What's your intention? 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'll it be?
Ned Pepper: I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man.
Rooster Cogburn: Fill your hands, you son of a bitch!


--John Wayne (as Rooster Cogburn) in True Grit