Harper Lee Quotes
Writing is simply something you must do. It's rather like virtue in that it is its own reward.
In Maycomb, if one went for a walk with no definite purpose in mind, it was correct to believe one's mind incapable of definite purpose.
Again, as I had often met it in my own church, I was confronted with the Impurity of Women doctrine that seemed to preoccupy all clergymen.
We’re so rarely called on to be Christians, but when we are, we’ve got men like Atticus to go for us.
...in other words, all I want to be is the Jane Austen of south Alabama Interview - March 1964
Being Southerners, it was a source of shame to some members of the family that we had no recorded ancestors on either side of the Battle of Hastings.
As I made my way home, I thought Jem and I would get grown but there wasn't much else for us to learn, except possibly algebra.
My book had a universal theme. It's not a "racial" novel. It portrays an aspect of civilization, not necessarily Southern civilization.
I don't want to hear any words like that while I'm here. Scout, you'll get in trouble if you go around saying things like that. You want to grow up to be a lady, don't you?' I said not particularly.
Scout, I´m telling you for the last time, shut your trap or go home - I declare to the Lord you´re gettin´ more like a girl every day!” With that, I had no option but to join them.
Never, never, never on cross-examination ask a witness a question you don't already know the answer to, was a tenet I absorbed with my baby food. Do it, and you'll often get an answer you don't want.
I just thought you'd like to know I can read. You got anything needs readin' I can do it.
Yeah, that's all," said Dill. "He'll probably come out after you when he sees you in the yard, then Scout'n' me'll jump on him and hold him down till we can tell him we ain't gonna hurt him.
We said good-bye, and Dill went inside the house. He evidently remembered he was engaged to me, for he ran back out and kissed me swiftly in front of Jem. "Yawl write, hear?" he bawled after us.
There's just some kind of men you have to shoot before you can say hidy to 'em. Even then, they ain't worth the bullet it takes to shoot 'em.
Dill?" Mm?" Why do you reckon Boo Radleys never run off?" Dill sighed a long sigh and turned away from me. Maybe he doesn't have anywhere to run off to
I didn't know how you were going to do it, but from now on I'll never worry about what'll become of you, son, you'll always have an idea.
You see they could never, never understand that I live like I do because that's the way I want to live.
She's an old lady and she's ill. You just hold your head high and be a gentleman. Whatever she says to you, it's your job not to let her make you mad.
I came to the conclusion that people were just peculiar, I withdrew from them, and never thought about them until I was forced to.
About your writing with you left hand, are you ambidextrous, Mr. Ewell?" "I most positively am not, I can use one hand good as the other. One hand good as the other.
Before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.
Atticus, he was real nice.""Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them.
Don’t talk like that, Dill, ” said Aunt Alexandra. “It’s not becoming to a child. It’s – cynical.”“I ain’t cynical, Miss Alexandra. Tellin’ the truth’s not cynical, is it?”“The way you tell it, it is.
Never, never, never, on cross-examination ask a witness a question you don't already know the answer to.
Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.
Don't you oh well me, sir, " Miss Maudie replied, recognizing Jem's fatalistic noises, "you are not old enough to appreciate what I said.