The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

Clint Eastwood: Josey Wales

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Bounty hunter #1 : You're wanted, Wales.

  Josey Wales : Reckon I'm right popular. You a bounty hunter?

  Bounty hunter #1 : A man's got to do something for a living these days.

  Josey Wales : Dyin' ain't much of a living, boy.

• Josey Wales : Are you gonna pull those pistols or whistle Dixie?

• Lone Watie : Guess we ain't going to see that little Navajo girl again.

  Josey Wales : Nah, I guess not. I kinda liked her. But then, it's always like that.

  Lone Watie : Like what?

  Josey Wales : Whenever I get to likin' someone, they ain't around long.

  Lone Watie : I notice when you get to DISlikin' someone they ain't around for long neither.

• Laura Lee : Kansas was all golden and smelled like sunshine.

  Josey Wales : Yeah, well, I always heard there were three kinds of suns in Kansas: sunshine, sunflowers, and sons-of-bitches.

• Josey Wales : Now remember, when things look bad and it looks like you're not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb, mad-dog mean. 'Cause if you lose your head and you give up, then you neither live nor win. That's just the way it is.

• Ten Bears : These things you say we will have, we already have.

  Josey Wales : That's true. I ain't promising you nothing extra. I'm just giving you life and you're giving me life. And I'm saying that men can live together without butchering one another.

  Ten Bears : It's sad that governments are chiefed by the double tongues. There is iron in your words of death for all Comanche to see and so there is iron in your words of life. No signed paper can hold the iron. It must come from men. The words of Ten Bears carries the same iron of life and death. It is good that warriors such as we meet in the struggle of life... or death. It shall be life.

• Lone Watie : [realizes Josey has snuck up behind and pulled a gun on him]  They said a man could get rich on reward money if he could kill you.

  Josey Wales : Seems like you was looking to gain some money here.

  Lone Watie : Actually, I was looking to gain an edge. I thought you might be someone who would sneak up behind me with a gun.

  Josey Wales : Where'd you ever get an idea like that? Besides it ain't supposed to be easy to sneak up behind an Indian

  Lone Watie : I'm an Indian, all right; but here in the nation they call us the "civilized tribe." They call us "civilized" because we're easy to sneak up on. White men have been sneaking up on us for years.

• Jamie : I wish we had time to bury them fellas.

  Josey Wales : To hell with them fellas. Buzzards gotta eat, same as worms.

• [last lines] 

  [Fletcher knows he's talking to Josey Wales] 

  Fletcher : I think I'll go down to Mexico to try to find him.

  Josey Wales : And then?

  Fletcher : He's got the first move. I owe him that. I think I'll try to tell him the war is over. What do you say, Mr. Wilson?

  Josey Wales : I reckon so. I guess we all died a little in that damn war.

• Carpetbagger : Your young friend could use some help.

  [holds up a bottle of patent medicine] 

  Carpetbagger : This is it... one dollar a bottle. It works wonders on wounds.

  Josey Wales : Works wonders on just about everything, eh?

  Carpetbagger : It can do most anything.

  Josey Wales : [spits tobacco juice on the carpetbagger's coat]  How is it with stains?

• Lone Watie : [Josey has walked up on Lone and Moonlight having sex]  Howdy.

  Josey Wales : Howdy.

  Lone Watie : Somethin' wrong?

  Josey Wales : Uh, no.

  Lone Watie : I guess you were right.

  [smiles] 

  Lone Watie : I ain't that old after all.

• Josey Wales : You have any food here?

  Lone Watie : All I have is a piece of hard rock candy. But it's not for eatin'. It's just for lookin' through.

• [Josey and Lone Watie are relaxing after Moonlight has cooked for them] 

  Lone Watie : That meal was damn good. I'm gonna take up teepee livin' if it's like this. You know she thinks I'm some kind of a Cherokee chief.

  Josey Wales : I wonder where she ever got that idea.

• Josie Wales : You be Ten Bears?

  Ten Bears : I AM Ten Bears.

  Josie Wales : I'm Josey Wales.

  Ten Bears : I have heard. You are the Gray Rider. You would not make peace with the Bluecoats. You may go in peace.

  Josie Wales : I reckon not. I got no place else to go.

  Ten Bears : Then you will die.

  Josie Wales : I came here to die with you. Or to live with you. Dying ain't so hard for men like you and me. It's living that's hard when all you've ever cared about has been butchered or raped. Governments don't live together - people live together. With governments, you don't always get a fair word or a fair fight. Well, I've come here to give you either one or get either one from you. I came here like this so you'll know my word of death is true, and my word of life is then true. The bear lives here, the wolf, the antelope, the Comanche. And so will we. Now we'll only hunt what we need to live on, same as the Comanche does. And every spring, when the grass turns green, and the Comanche moves north, you can rest here in peace, butcher some of our cattle, and jerk beef for the journey. The sign of the Comanche, that will be on our lodge. That's my word of life.

  Ten Bears : And your word of death?

  Josie Wales : It's here in my pistols and there in your rifles. I'm here for either one.

  Ten Bears : These things you say we will have, we already have.

  Josie Wales : That's true. I ain't promising you nothing extra. I'm just giving you life and you're giving me life. And I'm saying that men can live together without butchering one another.

  Ten Bears : It's sad that governments are chiefed by the double tongues. There is iron in your words of death for all Comanche to see, and so there is iron in your words of life. No signed paper can hold the iron. It must come from men. The words of Ten Bears carries the same iron of life and death. It is good that warriors such as we meet in the struggle of life... or death. It shall be life.

  [draws his knife, and cuts his hand; Josie does likewise. The two shake hands, their blood mingling in brotherhood] 

  Ten Bears : So will it be.

  Josie Wales : I reckon so.

• Lone Watie : I'm gettin' better at sneaking up on you like this. Only an Indian can do something like this.

  Josey Wales : That's what I figured.

  Lone Watie : You figured?

  Josey Wales : Only an Indian could do something like that.

  [Lone Watie hears a gun cock behind him; turns and sees Moonlight] 

  Lone Watie : It's not right, this damn woman doing something like this to me. I used to have power. Now old age is creeping up on me.

  Josey Wales : More like old habits than old age.

• [putting his dead friend on a horse and sending him into the enemy camp] 

  Josey Wales : This boy was brought up in a time of blood and dying and never questioned a bit of it. He never turned his back on his folks or his kind. I rode with him... and I got no complaints. The blue bellies will give ya a better burial than I can, boy.

• Lone Watie : How did you know which one was goin' to shoot first?

  Josie Wales : Well, that one in the center, he had a flap holster and he was in no itchin' hurry. And the one second from the left, he had scared eyes; he wasn't gonna do nothin'. But that one on the far left, he had crazy eyes. Figured him to make the first move.

  Lone Watie : How 'bout the one on the right?

  Josie Wales : Never paid him no mind; you were there.

  Lone Watie : I could have missed.

• Granny Hawkins : So you'll be Josey Wales.

  Josey Wales : Now how might you know that, Granny?

  Granny Hawkins : Soldiers were here looking for you 'bout two hours ago.

  [Josey looks at Carstairs] 

  Sim Carstairs : Uh, I was goin' to mention that to you... as soon as I got the chance.

  Granny Hawkins : They say you killed your own men.

  Jamie : Those lying, blue-scum bellies...

  Granny Hawkins : They say you're a hard put and desperate man, Josey Wales. They're goin' to heel and hide you to a barn door. You know what I say?

  Josey Wales : What's that?

  Granny Hawkins : I say that big talk's worth doodly-squat. Now them poultices be laced with feathermoss and mustard root. Mind you drop water on 'em occasional and keep 'em damp.

  [Walks off] 

  Granny Hawkins : You can pay me when you see me again, Josey Wales.

  Josey Wales : I reckon so.

• Jamie : You can't get 'em all, Josey.

  Josey Wales : That's a fact.

  Jamie : How come you're doing this then?

  Josey Wales : Because I ain't got nothin' better to do.

• [Missouri guerillas come upon Josey sitting by his family's graves] 

  "Bloody Bill" Anderson : Name's Anderson. Bloody Bill's what they call me.

  [Looks around] 

  "Bloody Bill" Anderson : Red Legs? You'll find them up in Kansas. They're with the Union. And we're goin' up there and set things aright.

  Josey Wales : I'll be comin' with you.

• Jamie : [after Jamie and Josey kill Abe and Lige]  I figured you could use some help.

  Josey Wales : You get those holes a-leakin', I'm gonna whomp you with a knotted plow line.

• Josey Wales : [throughout movie]  I reckon so.

• Josey Wales : [referring to Lone's dog]  Chief, I was just wondering: I suppose that mangy red-bone hound's got no place else to go either.

  [spits tobacco juice on the dog's forehead] 

  Josey Wales : He might as well ride along with us; Hell, everybody else is.

• Jamie : [Josey and Jamie are waiting for the Redlegs to cross the river]  They comin'.

  [Josey pulls a Sharp's rifle with a early telescopic sight on it from his horse] 

  Carpetbagger : Do you really think you can shoot all those men down before they shoot you? No, no, Mr. Josey Wales; there is such a thing in this country called justice!

  Josey Wales : Well, Mr. Carpetbagger. We got somethin' in this territory called the Missouri boat ride.

  [shoots the rope hauling the ferry across the river] 

• Josey Wales : Anyone gets hit, sing out. Slap iron to it. It's the fastest way to stop the blood.

• Kelly : [Josey has walked into the saloon in Santa Rio]  What'll you have?

  Josey Wales : Whiskey.

  Rose : [laughing]  Maybe you'd like somethin' else.

  Josey Wales : Beer?

  Kelly : Been a long time since somebody ordered a drink in San Rio.

  Ten Spot : Been a long time since we had anythin' to drink.

  Kelly : Yep, first the silver run out, then the people run out, then the whiskey run out, then the beer run out. Don't matter; it's good to see a high roller come through.

  [Josey walks out] 

  Kelly : What's the matter with him?

  Rose : I guess some folks don't like to be called 'high rollers.' I knew a man once; he didn't like to be called 'high handed.'

• Jamie : We whooped 'em again, didn't we, Josey?

  Josey Wales : I reckon so.

• Josey Wales : Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away.

• Josey Wales : Sometimes, trouble just follows a man.

• Josey Wales : You dumb kid.