The Shootist

John Bernard Books:
Damn.

Bond Rogers:
John Bernard, you swear too much.

John Bernard Books:
The hell I do.

[Books has just had a confrontation with Mike Sweeney]

Mrs. Rogers:
Do you know that man?

John Bernard Books:
Not him personally; but I had some dealings with his brother, Albert.

Mrs. Rogers:
What kind of dealings? [Books looks at her] Oh.

John Bernard Books:
I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a-hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them.

Carson City Marshal Walter Thibido:
Books, I want you out of town. These are law-abiding people here and I don't want any trouble. I can deputize as many men as I need to see that you leave.

John Bernard Books:
I'm not going anywhere, Marshal. I'm dying and I intend to die right here.

Carson City Marshal Walter Thibido:
Really? You're really dyin'?

John Bernard Books:
Ask Doc Hostetler.

Carson City Marshal Walter Thibido:
Hot damn! You know, Books, that's the best news I've had all day. While I was walking over here I was thinking, what if Books decides to kill me? Who will take over as marshal? Will the town council pay my pension to my wife? Damn, that's good news.

Dr. E.W. Hostetler:
Books, every few days I have to tell a man or a woman something I don't want to. I've been practicing medicine for 29 years, and I still don't know how to do it well.

John Bernard Books:
Why don't you just say it flat out?

Dr. E.W. Hostetler:
All right. You have a cancer - advanced. Is that what that fella up in Creed told you?

John Bernard Books:
Yeah.

Dr. E.W. Hostetler:
And you didn't believe him.

John Bernard Books:
No.

Dr. E.W. Hostetler:
Do you believe me?

John Bernard Books:
Can't you cut it out, Doc?

Dr. E.W. Hostetler:
I'd have to gut you like a fish.

John Bernard Books:
Well, what *can* you do?

Dr. E.W. Hostetler:
There's... just, uh... very little I can do. Uh, if... when the pain gets too bad, I can give you something.

John Bernard Books:
What you're trying to tell me is that I...

Dr. E.W. Hostetler:
Yeah.

John Bernard Books:
Damn.

Carson City Marshal Walter Thibido:
Hey, Books; did you hear what happened at the Metropole last night? Faro dealer, Pulford, shot a man clean through the heart at eighty paces. Maybe you should go to the Metropole, let Pulford deal you a game of cards.

Dr. E.W. Hostetler:
You know, Books; I'm not an especially brave man. But, if I were you and had lived my entire life the way you have, I don't think that the death I just described to you is not the one I would choose.

Gillom Rogers:
[Books is giving Gillom a shooting lesson] Mr. Books, How is it you've killed so many men? My spread wasn't much bigger than yours.

John Bernard Books:
First of all,friend, there's no one up there shooting back at you. Second, I found most men aren't willing, they bat an eye, or draw a breath before they shoot. I won't.

Pulford confidante:
Pulford, J.B. Books over at Mrs. Rogers'...

Jack Pulford:
- is yesterday's news.

Pulford confidante:
Yeah, but I just heard he's dyin'.

Jack Pulford:
Dyin'?

Pulford confidante:
A friend a' mine got it from Marshal Thibido himself. Ol' Books is cashin' in.

Jack Pulford:
That's hard news. That's a man I coulda taken.

Gambler:
[laughs] My ass.

Jack Pulford:
You have two ways of leaving this establishment, my friend. Immediately or dead.

Carson City Marshal Walter Thibido:
How are you feeling? A little more poorly everyday?

John Bernard Books:
You have a streak of kindness a mile wide.

Carson City Marshal Walter Thibido:
That I do.

John Bernard Books:
I'm a dying man, scared of the dark.

Mrs. Rogers:
Damn you! Damn you for the pain you brought into this house.

Carson City Marshal Walter Thibido:
To put it in a nutshell, you've plum wore us out.

John Bernard Books:
Put it in a nutshell? You couldn't put it in a barrel without a bottom. You're the longest winded bastard I've ever known.

John Bernard Books:
Mike Sweeney?

Mike Sweeney:
John Bernard Books, now I'm flattered that you remembered me.

John Bernard Books:
Well, you look just how I remembered the Sweeneys - mean and ugly.

Gillom Rogers:
Bat Masterson told Cobb...

John Bernard Books:
[Interrupts] Bat Masterson?

Gillom Rogers:
Yeah, he said that a man has to have guts, deliberation and a proficiency with fire arms.

John Bernard Books:
Did he mention that third eye you better have?

Gillom Rogers:
Third eye?

John Bernard Books:
For that dumbass amateur. There's always some six-fingered bustard that couldn't hit a cow in the tit with a tin cup. That's the one who usually does you in. But Masterson always was full of... sheep-dip.

Mike Sweeney:
[after shooting Books] I'll tell you, that was for Albert!

John Bernard Books:
[after Gillom tells him that Pulford and Cobb will be at the Metropole the next day] What about the other one, Mike Sweeney?

Gillom Rogers:
Now you watch out for him, Mr. Books. He's mean, and he hates you.

John Bernard Books:
Well, we'll see if we can't clear that up tomorrow.

Carson City Marshal Walter Thibido:
You wouldn't gun down a police officer.

John Bernard Books:
What'd stop me? Fear of dying?

Carson City Marshal Walter Thibido:
The day they lay you away, what I'll do on your grave won't pass for flowers.

John Bernard Books:
Bond, I don't believe I ever killed a man that didn't deserve it.

Bond Rogers:
Surely only the Lord can judge that.

John Bernard Books:
[addressing the barman after entering the bar where his last gunfight will take place] Mister, this is my birthday. Gimme the best in the house.

Gillom Rogers:
[Gillom is dusting off a carriage as Books and Mrs. Rogers prepare for a drive to Lake Tahoe] Moses says he don't rent out this buggy too often.

Mrs. Rogers:
Doesn't.

Gillom Rogers:
'Doesn't'... except for funerals.

John Bernard Books:
Where's Gillom?

Bond Rogers:
In the woodshed.

John Bernard Books:
That's appropriate.

Bond Rogers:
Why?

John Bernard Books:
You stay outta this.

John Bernard Books:
[to the bumbling bandit who attempts to rob him in the first scene] Friend, you better get another line of work; this one sure don't fit your pistol.

Dr. E.W. Hostetler:
[pointing to Books' pillow] Well if I wanted to go around town unnoticed, I wouldn't carry *that* around with me.

John Bernard Books:
[smiling] Stole it from a whore house in Creed.

Moses Brown:
[haggling over the price of Books' horse] $295... $296... $297... $298...

John Bernard Books:
Whoa.

Moses Brown:
Two ninety - you mean I can - why Mr. Books, that makes me the bes' haggler!

John Bernard Books:
Best in the world, Moses. [Moses laughs]

John Bernard Books:
[putting his gun to Dobkins's mouth] Make like that's a nipple.

John Bernard Books:
How much do I owe you, Doc?

Dr. E.W. Hostetler:
Books, you're a man after my own heart. Usually that's the *last* thing they say. Let's see, the office visit and the laudanum... make it $2.00

Bond Rogers:
Where are you from, Mr. Hickock?

John Bernard Books:
Abilene, Texas

Bond Rogers:
And what do you do there?

John Bernard Books:
United States Marshall

Bond Rogers:
That's nice.

John Bernard Books:
No it isn't.

John Bernard Books:
[to Gillam] Would you tell Mrs. Rogers that a tuckered out old man would like a room?

John Bernard Books:
[Clearly depressed when Hostetler tells him his cancer is fatal] You told me I was strong as an ox!

Dr. E.W. Hostetler:
Well, even an ox dies.

John Bernard Books:
Sometimes it isn't being fast that counts, or even accurate; but willing. Most men will draw a breath or blink an eye before they shoot. I won't.

Moses Brown:
Mr. Books, you're the most famous man I ever knew, and the second bes' haggler.

John Bernard Books:
Who's the best?

Moses Brown:
[smiling broadly] Here I stand.