Charles Portis Quotes

• Listen, here's what I'd like to do: I'd like to live in a trailer and play records all night.

  Charles Portis

  Night, Play, Records

  Charles Portis (1999). “Norwood”, p.77, The Overlook Press

  50 Copy quote

• 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

  Grace, World, Grit

  Charles Portis (2011). “True Grit”, p.49, A&C Black

  18 Copy quote

• I had hated these ponies for the part they played in my father's death but now I realized the notion was fanciful, that it was wrong to charge blame to these pretty beasts who knew neither good nor evil but only innocence. I say that of these ponies. 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? Some preachers will say, well, that is superstitious "claptrap." My answer is this: Preacher, go to your Bible and read Luke 8: 26-33

  Charles Portis

  Horse, Father, Believe

  Charles Portis (2011). “True Grit”, p.40, A&C Black

  14 Copy quote

• Time just gets away from us.

  Charles Portis

  Grit, True Grit, Get Away

  Charles Portis (2013). “Escape Velocity”, p.262, The Overlook Press

  16 Copy quote

• Nothing I like to do pays well.

  Charles Portis

  Pay, Wells

  Charles Portis (2011). “True Grit”, p.163, A&C Black

  7 Copy quote

• Lookin' back is a bad habit.

  Charles Portis

  Habit, Bad Habits

  7 Copy quote

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

  Charles Portis

  Brain, Thieves, Grit

  Charles Portis (2011). “True Grit”, p.73, A&C Black

  16 Copy quote

• My Master of Arts degree means nothing at all to these monkeys and I have come to share their indifference.

  Charles Portis

  Art, Mean, Degrees

  Charles Portis (2013). “Escape Velocity”, p.161, The Overlook Press

  11 Copy quote

• In the Anthropology Club, as I understood it, you were permitted, if not required, to despise only one thing, and that was your own culture, that of the West.

  Charles Portis

  Culture, Clubs, West

  5 Copy quote

• But 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

  Done, Fool, Inclination

  Charles Portis (2010). “True Grit: A Novel”, p.84, The Overlook Press

  9 Copy quote

• 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

  Coffee, Men, Mustache

  Charles Portis (2011). “True Grit”, p.94, A&C Black

  8 Copy quote

• The wicked flee when none pursueth.

  Charles Portis

  Wicked, Grit, True Grit

  Charles Portis (2011). “True Grit”, p.25, A&C Black

  9 Copy quote

• What have you done when you have bested a fool?

  Charles Portis

  Done, Fool

  Charles Portis (2010). “True Grit: A Novel”, p.84, The Overlook Press

  4 Copy quote

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

  Charles Portis

  Done, Want, True Grit

  Charles Portis (2011). “True Grit”, p.90, A&C Black

  6 Copy quote

• On his deathbed he asked for a priest and became a Catholic. That was his wife's religion. It was his own business and none of mine. If you had sentenced one hundred and sixty men to death and seen around eighty of them swing, then maybe at the last minute you would feel the need for some stronger medicine than the Methodists could make.

  Charles Portis

  Men, Swings, Medicine

  Charles Portis (2011). “True Grit”, p.51, A&C Black

  12 Copy quote

• 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.

  Charles Portis

  People, Substance, Faces

  Charles Portis (2011). “True Grit”, p.244, A&C Black

  10 Copy quote

• One time you smash a bug with no mercy. Another time you find one helpless on his back with his legs flailing the air, and you flip him over and let him go on his way. The struggle that touches the heart.

  Charles Portis

  Struggle, Heart, Air

  4 Copy quote

• She gave me a pledge card, a card promising an annual gift of $5, $10, or $25 toward the support of the Unity mission. I filled it out under the hot light of the projector. The name and address spaces were much too short, unless you wrote a very fine hand or unless your name was Ed Poe and you lived at 1 Elm St.

  Charles Portis

  Light, Hands, Names

  Charles Portis (2007). “The Dog of the South”, p.72, The Overlook Press

  8 Copy quote

• Nothing is too long or too short either if you have a true and interesting tale and what I call a "graphic" writing style combined with educational aims.

  Charles Portis

  Educational, Writing, Long

  Charles Portis (2011). “True Grit”, p.52, A&C Black

  4 Copy quote

• We must each of us bear our own misfortunes.

  Charles Portis

  Bears, Misfortunes

  Charles Portis (2011). “True Grit”, p.43, A&C Black

  4 Copy quote

• People do not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father's blood but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen every day. I was just fourteen years of age when a coward going by the name Tom Chaney shot my father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robbed him of his life and his horse and $150 in cash money plus two California gold pieces that he carried in his trouser band.

  Charles Portis

  Girl, Horse, Father

  "True Grit". Book by Charles Portis, Chapter 1 (p. 9), 1968.

  7 Copy quote

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

  Charles Portis

  Heart, Men, Knowing

  Charles Portis (2011). “True Grit”, p.30, A&C Black

  4 Copy quote

• MR.GOUDY: I believe you testified that you backed away from Aaron Wharton. MR.COGBURN: That is right. MR.GOUDY: You were backing away? MR.COGBURN: Yes sir. He had that ax raised. MR.GOUDY: Which direction were you going? MR.COGBURN: I always go backwards when I am backing up.

  Charles Portis

  Believe, Backing Up, Backing Away

  Charles Portis (2011). “True Grit”, p.65, A&C Black

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Thinking, Mouths

  Charles Portis (2011). “True Grit”, p.175, A&C Black

  4 Copy quote

• I always go backwards when I am backing up.

  Charles Portis

  Backing Up, Backwards

  Charles Portis (2011). “True Grit”, p.65, A&C Black

  4 Copy quote

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