I might be one of the few that recognizes where that line comes from! One of my favorite movies of all time. BTW, for anyone who likes Wayne movies, I recommend The Shootist and The Searchers, too. For a guy that was supposedly a reflexive conservative, he made some amazing soul-searching socially conscious movies, particularly some of the themes in The Searchers, where his lead character has possibly had an affair with his brother’s wife and wants to kill his possible daughter from that implied relationship, who was kidnapped as a child and become an Indian squaw.
My favorite line in the movie about the one-eyed fat man, though, is perhaps when Rooster, who had scoffed at La Boeuf (Glenn Campbell) as a Texas Ranger, finally pays tribute to him, “He saved my life twice. Once when he was alive, once when he was dead.” And. after a lot of boozin’, we really see True Grit not only in the meadow but when he races to save Mattie’s life.
Edit_Update: Forgot to include a link to the story of The Greatest American Novelist You Never Heard About: