Quotes from Harper Lee

Bad language is a stage all children go through, and it dies with time when they learn they're not attracting attention with it.

When stalking one's prey, it is best to take one's time. Say nothing, and as sure as eggs he will become curious and emerge.

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.

I'm a slow worker; I'm, I think, a steady worker.

In that film, the man and the part met. As far as I'm concerned, that part is Greg's for life. I've had many, many offers to turn it into musicals, into TV or stage plays, but I've always refused.

Scout, I´m telling you for the last time, shut your trap or go home - I declare to the Lord you´re gettin´ more like a girl every day!" With that, I had no option but to join them.

I'm still old-fashioned. I love dusty old books and libraries.

Before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.

Prejudice, a dirty word, and faith, a clean one, have something in common: they both begin where reason ends.

Are you proud of yourself tonight that you have insulted a total stranger whose circumstances you know nothing about?

Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passin'.

They've done it before and they'll do it again and when they do it -- seems that only the children weep. Good night.

There's a lot of ugly things in this world, son. I wish I could keep 'em all away from you. That's never possible.

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

Any writer worth his salt writes to please himself...It's a self-exploratory operation that is endless. An exorcism of not necessarily his demon, but of his divine discontent.

It's not necessary to tell all you know. It's not ladylike -- in the second place, folks don't like to have someone around knowin' more than they do. It aggravates them. Your not gonna change any of them by talkin' right, they've got to want to learn themselves, and when they don't want to learn there's nothing you can do but keep your mouth shut or talk their language.

First of all, he said, if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view--until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.

That boy is your company. And if he wants to eat up that tablecloth, you let him, you hear?

There are some men in this world who are born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father's one of them.

Summer, and he watches his children's heart break. Autumn again and Boo's children needed him. Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough.

Every man's island, Jean Louise, every man's watchman, is his conscience. There is no such thing as a collective conscious.

Courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. It's knowing you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.

She seemed glad to see me when I appeared in the kitchen, and by watching her I began to think there was some skill involved in being a girl.

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