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

Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives.

Atticus, he was real nice." "Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them.

I say guilt, gentlemen, because it was guilt that motivated her. She has committed no crime, she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society.

...in other words, all I want to be is the Jane Austen of south Alabama Interview - March 1964

Atticus said that Jem was trying hard to forget something, but what he was really doing was storing it away for a while, until enough time passed. Then he would be able to think about it and sort things out. When he was able to think about it, Jem would be himself again.

They're ugly, but those are the facts of life.