When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.

No, everybody's gotta learn, nobody's born knowin'. That Walter's as smart as he can be, he just gets held back sometimes because he has to stay out and help his daddy. Nothin's wrong with him. Naw, Jem, I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks.

The things that happen to people we never really know. What happens in houses behind closed doors, what secrets -

Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.

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

Folks were doin' a lot of runnin' that night

Now...in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, ipods and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books.