Charles Portis
Charles Portis
Charles McColl Portisis an American author best known for his novels Norwoodand the classic Western novel True Grit, both adapted as films. The latter also inspired a film sequel and a made-for-TV movie sequel. A newer film adaptation of True Grit was released in 2010...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth28 December 1933
CountryUnited States of America
heart men knowing
There is no knowing what is in a man's heart.
done want true-grit
If you want anything done right you will have to see to it yourself every time.
educational writing interesting
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.
fool done drunkards
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?
girl horse father
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.
done fool
What have you done when you have bested a fool?
rocks progress president
It was old President Diaz who said that nothing ever happens in Mexico until it happens. Things rock along from day to day, and then all at once you are caught up in a rush of unforeseen events.
pay wells
Nothing I like to do pays well.
backing-up backwards
I always go backwards when I am backing up.
wicked grit true-grit
The wicked flee when none pursueth.
habit bad-habits
Lookin' back is a bad habit.
coffee men mustache
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.
horse father believe
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
men swings medicine
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.