Wordsworth was right when he said that we trail clouds of glory as we come into the world, that we are born with a divine sense of perception. As we grow older, the world closes in on us, and we gradually lose the freshness of viewpoint that we had as children. That is why I think children should get to know this country while they are young.

I've been writing as long as I've been able to form words. I never wrote with an idea of publishing anything until I began working on '[To Kill a] Mockingbird'. I think that what went before may have been a rather subconscious form of learning how to write, of training myself.

As a reader I loathe introductions...Introductions inhibit pleasure, they kill the joy of anticipation, they frustrate curiosity.

You can't really get to know a person until you get in their shoes and walk around in them.

Before Jem looks at anyone else he looks at me, and I’ve tried to live so I can look squarely back at him.

Characters make their own plot. The dimensions of the characters determine the action of the novel.

She was born in the Objective case.