Grit Quotes

(upon accepting his Oscar for True Grit (1969)) If I`d known this was all it would take, I`d have put that eyepatch on 40 years ago.

"You never have any control over what people write or what they think, but there is a sense of me as a working-class lad done very well. I don`t know where that comes from . . . It`s partly to do with "One Summer" (1983), the first thing I ever did, which is a very gritty piece of work; it was quite romantic, but it was about two poverty-stricken inner-city kids. People get confused, and think that was my background as well. In people`s minds, there`s no such thing as a middle-class scouser. Liverpool does tend to carry that sort of stamp of tough city kids, no arse in your trousers . . . it`s so not that. We`re the European city of culture, for God`s sake!"

That`s why those fellas were so magnificent playing the same part, because they`d played it forty times. That`s why John Wayne finally became a good actor in True Grit (1969) - he`s got 150 of them behind him. Now he`s developed a saltiness and an earthiness and a humor and a subtlety that comes from mining that same vein over and over again.

(on John Wayne) That`s why John Wayne finally became a good actor in "True Grit": he`s got 150 films behind him. Now he`s developed a saltiness and an earthiness and a humor and a subtlety that comes from mining that same vein over and over and over again.

I don`t think John Ford had any kind of respect for me as an actor until I made Red River (1948) for Howard Hawks. I was never quite sure what he did think of me as an actor. I know now, though. Because when I finally won an Oscar for my role as Rooster Cogburn in True Grit (1969), Ford shook my hand and said the award was long overdue me as far as he was concerned. Right then, I knew he`d respected me as an actor since Stagecoach (1939), even though he hadn`t let me know it. He later told me his praise earlier, might have gone to my head and made me conceited, and that was why he`d never said anything to me, until the right time.

I had the feeling my career was going to decline back in `68. I`d just had a big hit with The Green Berets (1968), but I wasn`t getting any younger and I knew Hellfighters (1968) wasn`t going to set the box office on fire. Then I read a script for a film called True Grit (1969).

The guitar has a kind of grit and excitement possessed by nothing else.

It had to have rocks in the distance, so the water could strike the boulders and shoot upward -- all very symbolic. The scene turned out to be deeply affecting on film, but, God, it was no fun to shoot. We had to time it for the waves, so that at just the right moment a big one would come up and wash over us. Most of the waves came up only to our feet, but we needed one that would come up all the way. We were like surfers, waiting for the perfect waves. Between each take, we had to do a total cleanup. When it was all over, we had four tons of grit in our mouths--and other places. -- DK, referring to her famous romantic beach scene with Burt Lancaster in "From Here to Eternity"

In order to obtain the goal of returning to Palestine, all of us sometimes have to grit our teeth.

He plays with some grit, ... He`s going to be one of our top six forwards even when everyone gets back.

It was 1988, I believe, that I met Grit. We were both appearing in a Canadian Folk Festival and as we sat backstage he handed me his guitar. I played it, loved it, and then found out that he`d made it himself.

I think we`re ready to go. We`re not where I want us to be just yet, but I like our work ethic and I like our tenacity and grit. The kids will have their adrenaline pumping (tonight).

Some people, you have to grit your teeth in order to stay in the same room as them, but you get on and ask the questions you assume most of the people watching want to ask.

(Lee is) a joyful raconteur, a woman with grit, grace and humor. Lee is the desert`s lover. Her voice is a torch in the wilderness.

It is very easy to forgive others their mistakes; it takes more grit and gumption to forgive them for having witnessed your own.