As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it - whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, he is trash.
Harper LeeNow, 75 years later in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods, and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books. Instant information is not for me. I prefer to search library stacks because when I work to learn something, I remember it. And, Oprah, can you imagine curling up in bed to read a computer? Weeping for Anna Karenina and being terrified by Hannibal Lecter, entering the heart of darkness with Mistah Kurtz, having Holden Caulfield ring you up — some things should happen on soft pages, not cold metal.
Harper LeeThey've done it before and they'll do it again and when they do it -- seems that only the children weep. Good night.
Harper LeeIt was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived.
Harper LeeDill said striking a match under a turtle was hateful. “How do you know a match don't hurt him?” “Turtles can't feel, stupid,” said Jem. “Where you ever a turtle, huh?
Harper LeeNow that I was compelled to think about it, reading was something that just came to me, as learning to fasten the seat of my union suit without looking around, or achieving two bows from a snarl of shoelaces.
Harper LeeIf this thing's hushed up it'll be a simple denial to Jem of the way I've tried to raise him. Sometimes I think I'm a total failure as a parent, but I'm all they've got. Before Jem looks at anyone else he looks at me, and I've tried to live so I can look squarely back at him.. if I connived at something like this, frankly I couldn't meet his eye, and the day I can't do that I'll know I've lost him. I don't want to lose him and Scout, because they're all I've got.
Harper LeeI would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide.
Harper LeeWriting is simply something you must do. It's rather like virtue in that it is its own reward.
Harper LeeWriting is a process of self-discipline you must learn before you can call yourself a writer. There are people who write, but I think they're quite different from people who must write.
Harper LeeBoo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives.
Harper LeeWhy reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro comes up, is something I don't pretend to understand.
Harper LeeThere are some men in this world who are born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father's one of them.
Harper LeeShe knew full well the enormity of her offense, but because her desires were stronger than the code she was breaking, she persisted in breaking it.
Harper LeeAs 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.
Harper LeeThat proves something- that a gang of wild animals can be stopped, simply because they're still human.
Harper LeeI 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.
Harper LeeI think I'll be a clown when I get grown,' said Dill. Jem and I stopped in our tracks. Yes sir, a clown,' he said. 'There ain't one thing in this world I can do about folks except laugh, so I'm gonna join the circus and laugh my head off.' You got it backwards, Dill,' said Jem. 'Clowns are sad, it's folks that laugh at them.' Well I'm gonna be a new kind of clown. I'm gonna stand in the middle of the ring and laugh at the folks.
Harper LeeNeighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives. But neighbors give in return. We never put back into the tree what we took out of it: we had given him nothing, and it made me sad.
Harper LeeCharacters make their own plot. The dimensions of the characters determine the action of the novel.
Harper LeeThere are just some kind of men…who’re so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one.
Harper LeeYeah, 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.
Harper LeeDill was off again. Beautiful things floated around in his dreamy head. He could read two books to my one, but he preferred the magic of his own inventions. He could add and subtract faster than lightning, but he preferred his own twilight world, a world where babies slept, waiting to be gathered like morning lilies.
Harper LeeI just thought you'd like to know I can read. You got anything needs readin' I can do it.
Harper LeeA mob's always made up of people, no matter what. Mr. Cunningham was part of a mob last night, but he was still a man. Every mob in every little Southern town is always made up of people you know--doesn't say much for them, does it?
Harper LeeI do much of my creative thinking while golfing. If people know you're working at home they think nothing of walking in for a cup of coffee, but wouldn't dream of interrupting on the golf course.
Harper LeeMaycomb was a tired old town, even in 1932 when I first knew it. Somehow, it was hotter then. Men's stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon after their three o'clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frosting from sweating and sweet talcum. The day was twenty-four hours long, but it seemed longer. There's no hurry, for there's nowhere to go and nothing to buy... and no money to buy it with.
Harper LeeOne must lie under certain circumstances and at all times when one can't do anything about them.
Harper Lee