Quotes from Harper Lee

Well, they're Southern people, and if they know you are working at home they think nothing of walking right in for coffee. But they wouldn't dream of interrupting you at golf.

I never expected any sort of success with 'Mockingbird'... I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement.

Serving on a jury forces a man to make up his mind and declare himself about something. Men don't like to do that. Sometimes it's unpleasant.

When a man spends his relief checks on green whiskey his children have a way of crying from hunger pains.

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.

He turned out the light and went into Jem's room. He would be there all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.

You can pet him, Mr. Arthur. He's asleep.

I wanted you see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand.

My objectives are very limited. I want to do the best I can with the talent God gave me. I hope to goodness that every novel I do gets better and better, not worse and worse.

I do wish this time you'd try to dress better while you're home. Folks in town get the wrong impression of you. They think you are--ah--slumming.

I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide.

From childhood on, I did sit in the courtroom watching my father argue cases and talk to juries.

My daddy had a pocket watch that he wore at all times in court. I gave Greg the watch and showed him how Daddy used to use it.

I would like to be the chronicler of something that I think is going down the drain very swiftly, and that is small-town, middle-class southern life.

Try fighting with your head for a change... it's a good one, even if it does resist learning.

She 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.

You rarely win, but sometimes you do.

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

With him, life was routine; without him, life was unbearable.

Folks don't like to have somebody around knowing more than they do.

It was something I never expected to - I never expected the book would sell in the first place. I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of the reviewers.

Many receive advice, only the wise profit from it.

The book to read is not the one which thinks for you, but the one which makes you think. No book in the world equals the Bible for that.

This time we aren't fighting the Yankees, we're fighting our friends. But remember this, no matter how bitter things get, they're still our friends and this is still our home.