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You Know, Many Writers Really Don't Like To Write. I Think This The Chief Complaint Of So Many. They Hate To Write; They Do It Under The Compulsion That Makes Any Artist The Victim He Is, But They Loathe The Process Of Sitting Down Trying To Turn Thoughts Into Reasonable Sentences.

-Harper Lee

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You Know, Many Writers

Harper Lee

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You Know, Many Writers Really Don't Like To Write. I Think This The Chief Complaint Of So Many. They Hate To Write; They Do It Under The Compulsion That Makes Any Artist The Victim He Is, But They Loathe The Process Of Sitting Down Trying To Turn Thoughts Into Reasonable Sentences.

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Folks Were Doin' A Lot Of Runnin' That Night

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It's Quite A Thing, If You've Never Been In Or Known A Small Southern Town. The People Are Not Particularly Sophisticated, Naturally. They're Not Worldly Wise In Any Way. But They Tell You A Story Whenever They See You.

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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 Could Think Of Nothing Else To Say To Her. In Fact I Could Never Think Of Anything To Say To Her, And I Sat Thinking Of Past Painful Conversations Between Us: How Are You, Jean Louise? Fine, Thank You Ma'am, How Are You? Very Well, Thank You; What Have You Been Doing With Yourself? Nothin'. Don't You Do Anything? Nome. Certainly You Have Friends? Yessum. Well What Do You All Do? Nothin'.

When He Was Nearly Thirteen, My Brother Jem Got His Arm Badly Broken At The Elbow.

Whatever She Says To You, It’s Your Job Not To Let Her Make You Mad.

I Didn't Expect The Book To Sell In The First Place. I Was Hoping For A Quick And Merciful Death At The Hands Of Reviewers But At The Same Time I Sort Of Hoped That Maybe Someone Would Like It Enough To Give Me Encouragement. Public Encouragement. I Hoped For A Little, As I Said, But I Got Rather A Whole Lot, And In Some Ways This Was Just About As Frightening As The Quick, Merciful Death I'd Expected.

For The Life Of Me, I Did Not Understand How He[atticus] Could Sit There In Cold Blood And Read A Newspaper When His Only Son Stood An Excellent Chance Of Being Murdered With A Confederate Army Relic.

As I Inched Sluggishly Along The Treadmill Of The Maycomb County School System, I Could Not Help Receiving The Impression That I Was Being Cheated Out Of Something. Out Of What I Knew Not, Yet I Did Not Believe That Twelve Years Of Unrelieved Boredom Was Exactly What The State Had In Mind For Me.

I Never Expected Any Sort Of Success With 'mockingbird'... I Sort Of Hoped Someone Would Like It Enough To Give Me Encouragement.

There Are Just Some Kind Of Men…who’re So Busy Worrying About The Next World They’ve Never Learned To Live In This One.

Let The Dead Bury The Dead.

Kill A Mockingbird

Turtles Don't Feel, Stupid," Said Jem. "were You Ever A Turtle, Huh?

See There?" Jem Was Scowling Triumphantly. "nothin' To It. I Swear, Scout, Sometimes You Act So Much Like A Girl Its Mortifyin

You Never Really Understand A Person Until You Consider Things From His Point Of View.

Talking To Francis Gave Me The Sensation Of Settling Slowly To The Bottom Of The Ocean.

People Who Write For Reward By Way Of Recognition Or Monetary Gain Don't Know What They're Doing. They're In The Category Of Those Who Write; They Are Not Writers. Writing Is Simply Something You Must Do. It's Rather Like Virtue In That It Is Its Own Reward. Writing Is Selfish And Contradictory In Its Terms. First Of All, You're Writing For An Audience Of One, You Must Please The One Person You're Writing For. Yourself.

Audience Of One

You Know, Many Writers Really Don't Like To Write. I Think This The Chief Complaint Of So Many. They Hate To Write; They Do It Under The Compulsion That Makes Any Artist The Victim He Is, But They Loathe The Process Of Sitting Down Trying To Turn Thoughts Into Reasonable Sentences.

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.

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.

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.

Yeah, That's All," Said Dill. "he'll Probably Come Out After You When He Sees You In The Yard, Then Scout'n' Me'll Jump On Him And Hold Him Down Till We Can Tell Him We Ain't Gonna Hurt Him.

About Your Writing With You Left Hand, Are You Ambidextrous, Mr. Ewell?" "i Most Positively Am Not, I Can Use One Hand Good As The Other. One Hand Good As The Other.

So It Took An Eight-year-old Child To Bring 'em To Their Senses.... That Proves Something - That A Gang Of Wild Animals Can Be Stopped, Simply Because They're Still Human. Hmp, Maybe We Need A Police Force Of Children.

Simply Because We Were Licked A Hundred Years Before We Started Is No Reason For Us Not To Try To Win.

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.

I Like To Write. Sometimes I'm Afraid That I Like It Too Much Because When I Get Into Work I Don't Want To Leave It. As A Result I'll Go For Days And Days Without Leaving The House Or Wherever I Happen To Be. I'll Go Out Long Enough To Get Papers And Pick Up Some Food And That's It. It's Strange, But Instead Of Hating Writing I Love It Too Much.

Miss Caroline Seemed Unaware That The Ragged, Denim-shirted And Floursack-skirted First Grade, Most Of Whom Had Chopped Cotton And Fed Hogs From The Time They Were Able To Walk, Were Immune To Imaginative Literature.

When A Man Spends His Relief Checks On Green Whiskey His Children Have A Way Of Crying From Hunger Pains.

Ladies In Bunches Always Filled Me With Vague Apprehension And A Firm Desire To Be Elsewhere.

We Said Good-bye, And Dill Went Inside The House. He Evidently Remembered He Was Engaged To Me, For He Ran Back Out And Kissed Me Swiftly In Front Of Jem. "yawl Write, Hear?" He Bawled After Us.

One Must Lie Under Certain Circumstances And At All Times When One Can't Do Anything About Them.

Remember It’s A Sin To Kill A Mockingbird.

You Can Choose Your Friends But You Sho' Can't Choose Your Family, An' They're Still Kin To You No Matter Whether You Acknowledge 'em Or Not, And It Makes You Look Right Silly When You Don't.

Nothing Is More Deadly Than A Deserted, Waiting Street.

Miss Jean Louise, Stand Up. Your Father's Passin'.

Any Writer Worth His Salt Writes To Please Himself.

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.

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.

I Have Nothing But Gratitude For The People Who Made The Film. It Was A Most Unusual Experience. I'm No Judge, And The Only Film I've Ever Seen Made Was Mockingbird, But There Seemed To Be An Aura Of Good Feeling On The Set. I Went Out And Looked At Them Filming A Little Of It, And There Seemed To Be Such A General Kindness, Perhaps Even Respect, For The Material They Were Working With. I Was Delighted, Touched, Happy, And Exceedingly Grateful.

Weeping For Anna Karenina And Being Terrified By Hannibal Lecter, Entering The Heart Of Darkness With Mistah Kurtz, Having Holden Caulfield Ring You Up - Some Things Should Happen On Soft Pages, Not Cold Metal.

Folks Don't Like To Have Somebody Around Knowing More Than They Do.

You Just Hold Your Head High And Keep Those Fists Down. No Matter What Anybody Says To You, Don't You Let 'em Get Your Goat. Try Fighting With Your Head For A Change...

Atticus, He Was Real Nice." "most People Are, Scout, When You Finally See Them.

Are You Proud Of Yourself Tonight That You Have Insulted A Total Stranger Whose Circumstances You Know Nothing About?

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.

Atticus Said Naming People After Confederate Generals Made Slow Steady Drinkers.

It's Not Necessary To Tell All You Know.

Don’t Talk Like That, Dill,” Said Aunt Alexandra. “it’s Not Becoming To A Child. It’s – Cynical.” “i Ain’t Cynical, Miss Alexandra. Tellin’ The Truth’s Not Cynical, Is It?” “the Way You Tell It, It Is.

Atticus Told Me To Delete The Adjectives And I'd Have The Facts.

Everybody’s Gotta Learn, Nobody’s Born Knowing.

When A Child Asks You Something, Answer Him, For Goodness Sake. But Don't Make A Production Of It. Children Are Children, But They Can Spot An Evasion Faster Than Adults, And Evasion Simply Muddles 'em.

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.

Dill Said Striking A Match Under A Turtle Was Hateful. “how Do You Know A Match Don't Hurt Him?” “turtles Can't Feel, Stupid,” Said Jem. “where You Ever A Turtle, Huh?

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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.

Prejudice, A Dirty Word, And Faith, A Clean One, Have Something In Common: They Both Begin Where Reason Ends.

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.

Ladies Bathed Before Noon, After Their Three O'clock Naps, And By Nightfall Were Like Soft Teacakes With Frostings Of Sweat And Sweet Talcum.

Now...in An Abundant Society Where People Have Laptops, Cell Phones, Ipods And Minds Like Empty Rooms, I Still Plod Along With Books.

You Rarely Win, But Sometimes You Do.

Until I Feared I Would Lose It, I Never Loved To Read. One Does Not Love Breathing.

Summer Was Our Best Season: It Was Sleeping On The Back Screeneed Porch In Cots, Or Trying To Sleep In The Treehouse; Summer Was Everything Good To Eat;it Was A Thousand Colors In A Parched Landscape.

...in Other Words, All I Want To Be Is The Jane Austen Of South Alabama Interview - March 1964

When A Child Asks You Something, Answer Him, For Goodness' Sake.

Sometimes The Bible In The Hand Of One Man Is Worse Than A Whisky Bottle In The Hand Of Another... There Are Just Some Kind Of Men Who - Who're So Busy Worrying About The Next World They've Never Learned To Live In This One, And You Can Look Down The Street And See The Results.

To Be A Serious Writer Requires Discipline That Is Iron Fisted. It's Sitting Down And Doing It Whether You Think You Have It In You Or Not. Everyday. Alone. Without Interruption. Contrary To What Most People Think, There Is No Glamour To Writing. In Fact, It's Heartbreak Most Of The Time.

Bad Language Is A Stage All Children Go Through, And It Dies With Time When They Learn They're Not Attracting Attention With It.

As I Made My Way Home, I Thought Jem And I Would Get Grown But There Wasn't Much Else For Us To Learn, Except Possibly Algebra.

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.

That Boy Is Your Company. And If He Wants To Eat Up That Tablecloth, You Let Him, You Hear?

Ladies Pick Funny Things To Be Proud Of.

When You're At The Top, There's Only One Way To Go.

Havin' A Gun Around's An Invitation To Somebody To Shoot You.

Nothin’s Real Scary Except In Books.

Rest Assured, As Long As I Am Alive Any Book Purporting To Be With My Cooperation Is A Falsehood.

Now, 75 Years Later In An Abundant Society Where People Have Laptops, Cell Phones, Ipods, And Minds Like Empty Rooms, I Still Plod Along With Books. Instant Information Is Not For Me. I Prefer To Search Library Stacks Because When I Work To Learn Something, I Remember It. And, Oprah, Can You Imagine Curling Up In Bed To Read A Computer? Weeping For Anna Karenina And Being Terrified By Hannibal Lecter, Entering The Heart Of Darkness With Mistah Kurtz, Having Holden Caulfield Ring You Up — Some Things Should Happen On Soft Pages, Not Cold Metal.

There Is One Way In This Country In Which All Men Are Created Equal—there Is One Human Institution That Makes A Pauper The Equal Of A Rockefeller, The Stupid Man The Equal Of An Einstein, And The Ignorant Man The Equal Of Any College President. That Institution, Gentlemen, Is The Court.

The Remainder Of My Schooldays Were No More Auspicious Than The First. Indeed, They Were An Endless Project That Slowly Evolved Into A Unit, In Which Miles Of Construction Paper And Wax Crayon Were Expended By The State Of Alabama In Its Well-meaning But Fruitless Efforts To Teach Me Group Dynamics.

With Him, Life Was Routine; Without Him, Life Was Unbearable.

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.

In Maycomb, If One Went For A Walk With No Definite Purpose In Mind, It Was Correct To Believe One's Mind Incapable Of Definite Purpose.

Shoot All The Blue Jays You Want, If You Can Hit 'em, But Remember It's A Sin To Kill A Mockingbird.

I Wanted You To See What Real Courage Is, Instead Of Getting The Idea That Courage Is A Man With A Gun In His Hand.

Things Are Always Better In The Morning.

Calpurnia Evidently Remembered A Rainy Sunday When We Were Both Fatherless And Teacherless. Let To Its Own Devices, The Class Tied Eunice Ann Simpson To A Chair And Placed Her In The Furnace Room. We Forgot Her, Trooped Upstairs To Church, And Were Listening Quietly To The Sermon When A Dreadful Banging Issued From The Radiator Pipes, Persisting Until Someone Investigated And Brought Forth Eunice Ann Saying She Didn't Want To Play Shadrach Any More - Jem Finch Said She Wouldn't Get Burnt If She Had Enough Faith, But It Was Hot Down There.

They've Done It Before And They'll Do It Again And When They Do It -- Seems That Only The Children Weep. Good Night.

But Sometimes We Have To Make The Best Of Things, And The Way We Conduct Ourselves When The Chips Are Down.

That Proves Something- That A Gang Of Wild Animals Can Be Stopped, Simply Because They're Still Human.

I Do Much Of My Creative Thinking While Golfing. If People Know You're Working At Home They Think Nothing Of Walking In For A Cup Of Coffee, But Wouldn't Dream Of Interrupting On The Golf Course.

I Had Never Thought About It, But Summer Was Dill By The Fishpool Smoking String, Dill's Eyes Alive With Complicated Plans To Make Boo Radley Emerge; Summer Was The Swiftness With Which Dill Would Reach Up And Kiss Me When Jem Was Not Looking, The Longings We Sometimes Felt Each Other Feel. With Him, Life Was Routine; Without Him, Life Was Unbearable..." - Scout Finch

Writing Is Simply Something You Must Do. It's Rather Like Virtue In That It Is Its Own Reward.

Best Way To Clear The Air Is To Have It All Out In The Open.

You've Really Got To Start Hitting The Books Because It's No Joke Out Here.

I'm Gonna Be A New Kind Of Clown. I'm Gonna Stand In The Middle Of The Ring And Laugh At The Folks.

Why Reasonable People Go Stark Raving Mad When Anything Involving A Negro Comes Up, Is Something I Don't Pretend To Understand.

People Generally See What They Look For, And Hear What They Listen For.

Mr. Avery Said It Was Written On The Rosetta Stone That When Children Disobeyed Their Parents, Smoked Cigarettes And Made War On Each Other, The Seasons Would Change: Jem And I Were Burdened With The Guilt Of Contributing To The Aberrations Of Nature, Thereby Causing Unhappiness To Our Neighbors And Discomfort To Ourselves.

Sometimes The Bible In The Hands Of One Man Is Worse Than A Whiskey Bottle In The Hands Of Another.

Things Are Never As Bad As They Seem.

Kill A Mockingbird

I Was Not So Sure, But Jem Told Me I Was Being A Girl, That Girls Always Imagined Things, That’s Why Other People Hated Them So, And If I Started Behaving Like One I Could Just Go Off And Find Some To Play With.

There Are Some Men In This World Who Are Born To Do Our Unpleasant Jobs For Us. Your Father's One Of Them.

Writing Is Something You'll Never Learn In Any University Or At Any School. It's Something That Is Within You, And If It Isn't There, Nothing Can Put It There.

I'm No Idealist To Believe Firmly In The Integrity Of Our Courts And In The Jury System - That Is No Ideal To Me, It Is A Living, Working Reality.

Some Negroes Lie, Some Are Immoral, Some Negro Men Are Not Be Trusted Around Women - Black And White. But This Is A Truth That Applies To The Human Race And To No Particular Race Of Men.

Black And White

I Wonder How Much Of The Day I Spend Just Callin' After You.

Writing Is A Process Of Self-discipline You Must Learn Before You Can Call Yourself A Writer. There Are People Who Write, But I Think They're Quite Different From People Who Must Write.

The One Place Where A Man Ought To Get A Square Deal Is In A Courtroom, Be He Any Color Of The Rainbow, But People Have A Way Of Carrying Their Resentments Right Into A Jury Box.

Hey, Mr. Cunningham. How's Your Entailment Gettin' Along?

I Would Advise Anyone Who Aspires To A Writing Career That Before Developing His Talent He Would Be Wise To Develop A Thick Hide.

As You Grow Older, You'll See White Men Cheat Black Men Every Day Of Your Life, But Let Me Tell You Something And Don't You Forget It - Whenever A White Man Does That To A Black Man, No Matter Who He Is, How Rich He Is, Or How Fine A Family He Comes From, He Is Trash.

Black And White

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.

When I Pointed To Him His Palms Slipped Slightly, Leaving Greasy Sweat Streaks On The Wall, And He Hooked His Thumbs In His Belt. A Strange Spasm Shook Him, As If He Heard Fingernails Scrape Slate, But As I Gazed At Him In Wonder The Tension Slowly Drained From His Face. His Lips Parted Into A Timid Smile, And Our Neighbor’s Image Blurred With My Sudden Tears. “hey, Boo,” I Said. “mr. Arthur, Honey,” Said Atticus, Gently Correcting Me. “jean Louise, This Is Mr. Arthur Radley. I Believe He Already Knows You.

I Think There's Just One Kind Of Folks. Folks.

I Just Thought You'd Like To Know I Can Read. You Got Anything Needs Readin' I Can Do It.

Dill?" Mm?" Why Do You Reckon Boo Radleys Never Run Off?" Dill Sighed A Long Sigh And Turned Away From Me. Maybe He Doesn't Have Anywhere To Run Off To

They're Ugly, But Those Are The Facts Of Life.

The Things That Happen To People We Never Really Know. What Happens In Houses Behind Closed Doors, What Secrets -

Hold Your Head High And Keep Those Fists Down - Atticus Finch

She's An Old Lady And She's Ill. You Just Hold Your Head High And Be A Gentleman. Whatever She Says To You, It's Your Job Not To Let Her Make You Mad.

I Was A First-time Writer, So I Did As I Was Told. I Hadn't Realized It (the Original Book) Had Survived, So Was Surprised And Delighted When My Dear Friend And Lawyer Tonja Carter Discovered It. After Much Thought And Hesitation, I Shared It With A Handful Of People I Trust And Was Pleased To Hear That They Considered It Worthy Of Publication. I Am Humbled And Amazed That This Will Now Be Published After All These Years.

You See They Could Never, Never Understand That I Live Like I Do Because That's The Way I Want To Live.

I Know Now What He Was Trying To Do, But Atticus Was Only A Man. It Takes A Woman To Do That Kind Of Work.

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.

Dill If You Don't Hush I'll Knock You Bowlegged.

Way Back About Nineteen-twenty There Was A Klan... The Ku Klux's Gone... It'll Never Come Back.

There Was Nowhere To Go, But I Turned To Go And Met Atticus's Vest Front. I Buried My Head In It And Listened To The Small Internal Noises That Went On Behind The Light Blue Cloth: His Watch Ticking, The Faint Crackle Of His Starched Shirt, The Soft Sound Of His Breathing. 'your Stomach's Growling,' I Said. 'i Know It,' He Said.

If There's Just One Kind Of Folks, Why Can't They Get Along With Each Other? If They're All Alike, Why Do They Go Out Of Their Way To Despise Each Other? Scout, I Think I'm Beginning To Understand Something. I Think I'm Beginning To Understand Why Boo Radley's Stayed Shut Up In The House All This Time. It's Because He Wants To Stay Inside.

I Remember When My Daddy Gave Me That Gun. He Told Me That I Should Never Point It At Anything In The House; And That He'd Rather I'd Shoot At Tin Cans In The Backyard. But He Said That Sooner Or Later He Supposed The Temptation To Go After Birds Would Be Too Much, And That I Could Shoot All The Blue Jays I Wanted - If I Could Hit 'em; But To Remember It Was A Sin To Kill A Mockingbird.

"when They Finally Saw Him, Why He Hadn't Done Any Of Those Things... Atticus, He Was Real Nice..." His Hands Were Under My Chin, Pulling Up The Cover, Tucking It Around Me. "most People Are, Scout, When You Finally See Them."

They're Real Strong Magic, They Make You Have Good Luck. Not Like Fried Chicken When You're Not Lookin' For It, But Things Like Long Life N' Good Health, N' Passin' Six Weeks Tests...these Are Real Valuable To Somebody.

Characters Make Their Own Plot. The Dimensions Of The Characters Determine The Action Of The Novel.

Jem Gave A Reasonable Description Of Boo: Boo Was About Six-and-a-half Feet Tall, Judging From His Tracks; He Dined On Raw Squirrels And Any Cats He Could Catch, That's Why His Hands Were Bloodstained - If You Ate Animal Raw, You Could Never Wash The Blood Off. There Was A Long Jagged Scar That Ran Across His Face; What Teeth He Had Were Yellow And Rotten; His Eyes Popped, And He Drooled Most Of The Time.

Long Ago, In A Burst Of Friendliness, Aunty And Uncle Jimmy Produced A Son Named Henry.

Southern Lawyers Don't Read Novels Much.

I Have Said What I Wanted To Say And I Will Not Say It Again.

As A Reader I Loathe Introductions...introductions Inhibit Pleasure, They Kill The Joy Of Anticipation, They Frustrate Curiosity.

Naturally, You Don't Sit Down In "white Hot Inspiration" And Write With A Burning Flame In Front Of You. But Since I Knew I Could Never Be Happy Being Anything But A Writer, And Mockingbird Put Itself Together For Me So Accommodatingly, I Kept At It Because I Knew It Had To Be My First Novel, For Better Or For Worse.

I'm Still Old-fashioned. I Love Dusty Old Books And Libraries.

We’re So Rarely Called On To Be Christians, But When We Are, We’ve Got Men Like Atticus To Go For Us.

Somewhere, I Had Received The Impression That Fine Folks Were People Who Did The Best They Could With The Sense They Had, But Aunt Alexandra Was Of The Opinion, Obliquely Expressed, That The Longer A Family Had Been Squatting On One Patch Of Land The Finer It Was.

You Can't Really Get To Know A Person Until You Get In Their Shoes And Walk Around In Them.

You Can Choose Your Friends, But You Sho' Can't Choose Your Family.

A Man Can Condemn His Enemies, But It's Wiser To Know Them.

As You Grow Up, Always Tell The Truth, Do No Harm To Others, And Don't Think You Are The Most Important Being On Earth. Rich Or Poor, You Then Can Look Anyone In The Eye And Say, 'i'm Probably No Better Than You, But I'm Certainly Your Equal.

When A Child Asks You Something, Answer Him, For Goodness’ Sake. But Don’t Make A Production Of It. Children Are Children, But They Can Spot An Evasion Quicker Than Adults, And Evasion Simply Muddles ‘em. No... You Had The Right Answer This Afternoon, But The Wrong Reasons. Bad Language Is A Stage All Children Go Through, And It Dies With Time When They Learn They’re Not Attracting Attention With It. Hotheadedness Isn’t.

Being Southerners, It Was A Source Of Shame To Some Members Of The Family That We Had No Recorded Ancestors On Either Side Of The Battle Of Hastings.

I Came To The Conclusion That People Were Just Peculiar, I Withdrew From Them, And Never Thought About Them Until I Was Forced To.

You Can Pet Him, Mr. Arthur. He's Asleep.

Neighbors Bring Food With Death And Flowers With Sickness And Little Things In Between. Boo Was Our Neighbor. He Gave Us Two Soap Dolls, A Broken Watch And Chain, A Pair Of Good-luck Pennies, And Our Lives. But Neighbors Give In Return. We Never Put Back Into The Tree What We Took Out Of It: We Had Given Him Nothing, And It Made Me Sad.

I Didn't Know How You Were Going To Do It, But From Now On I'll Never Worry About What'll Become Of You, Son, You'll Always Have An Idea.

Cecil Jacobs Is A Big Wet Hen!

Boo Was Our Neighbor. He Gave Us Two Soap Dolls, A Broken Watch And Chain, A Pair Of Good-luck Pennies, And Our Lives.

Real Courage Is When You Know You're Licked Before You Begin, But You Begin Anyway And See It Through No Matter What.

Again, As I Had Often Met It In My Own Church, I Was Confronted With The Impurity Of Women Doctrine That Seemed To Preoccupy All Clergymen.

I Do My Best To Love Everybody

Before Jem Looks At Anyone Else He Looks At Me, And I’ve Tried To Live So I Can Look Squarely Back At Him.

Mutual Defiance Made Them Alike.

I'm Charles Baker Harris...i Can Read

People In Their Right Minds Never Take Pride In Their Talents.

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.

It’s Never An Insult To Be Called What Somebody Thinks Is A Bad Name. It Just Shows You How Poor That Person Is, It Doesn’t Hurt You.

There's No Substitute For The Love Of Language, For The Beauty Of An English Sentence. There's No Substitute For Struggling, If A Struggle Is Needed, To Make An English Sentence As Beautiful As It Should Be.

Never, Never, Never On Cross-examination Ask A Witness A Question You Don't Already Know The Answer To, Was A Tenet I Absorbed With My Baby Food. Do It, And You'll Often Get An Answer You Don't Want.

Questions And Answers

Jen And I Were Accustomed To Our Father's Last-will-and-testament Diction, And Were At Times Free To Interrupt Atticus For A Translation When It Was Beyond Our Understanding.

Maycomb Was A Tired Old Town, Even In 1932 When I First Knew It. Somehow, It Was Hotter Then. Men's Stiff Collars Wilted By Nine In The Morning. Ladies Bathed Before Noon After Their Three O'clock Naps, And By Nightfall Were Like Soft Teacakes With Frosting From Sweating And Sweet Talcum. The Day Was Twenty-four Hours Long, But It Seemed Longer. There's No Hurry, For There's Nowhere To Go And Nothing To Buy... And No Money To Buy It With.

Now That I Was Compelled To Think About It, Reading Was Something That Just Came To Me, As Learning To Fasten The Seat Of My Union Suit Without Looking Around, Or Achieving Two Bows From A Snarl Of Shoelaces.

I Don't Want To Hear Any Words Like That While I'm Here. Scout, You'll Get In Trouble If You Go Around Saying Things Like That. You Want To Grow Up To Be A Lady, Don't You?' I Said Not Particularly.

It's Not Necessary To Tell All You Know. It's Not Ladylike--in The Second Place, Folks Don't Like To Have Somebody Around Knowin' More Than They Do.

I'm No Idealist To Believe Firmly In The Integrity Of Our Courts And In The Jury System -- That Is No Ideal To Me, It Is A Living, Working Reality. Gentlemen, A Court Is No Better Than Each Man Of You Sitting Before Me On This Jury. A Court Is Only As Sound As Its Jury, And A Jury Is Only As Sound As The Men Who Make It Up.

Where Are Your Pants, Son?

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.

Sometimes It’s Better To Bend The Law A Little In Special Cases.

Atticus Had Said It Was The Polite Thing To Talk To People About What They Were Interested In, Not About What You Were Interested In.

I Was Born Good But Had Grown Progressively Worse Every Year. Scout

It's Not Time To Worry Yet

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.

I Shall Never Marry, Atticus." "why?" "i Might Have Children.

I Try To Give'em A Reason, You See. It Helps Folks If They Can Latch Onto A Reason.

The One Thing That Doesn't Abide By Majority Rule Is A Person's Conscience.

If This Thing's Hushed Up It'll Be A Simple Denial To Jem Of The Way I've Tried To Raise Him. Sometimes I Think I'm A Total Failure As A Parent, But I'm All They've Got. Before Jem Looks At Anyone Else He Looks At Me, And I've Tried To Live So I Can Look Squarely Back At Him.. If I Connived At Something Like This, Frankly I Couldn't Meet His Eye, And The Day I Can't Do That I'll Know I've Lost Him. I Don't Want To Lose Him And Scout, Because They're All I've Got.

I Don't Hafta Take His Sass

My Father Is One Of The Few Men I've Known Who Has Genuine Humility, And It Lends Him A Natural Dignity. He Has Absolutely No Ego Drive, And So He Is One Of The Most Beloved Men In This Part Of The State.

It's Better To Be Silent Than To Be A Fool.

...but Before I Can Live With Other Folks I've Got To Live With Myself.

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.

It Was Times Like These When I Thought My Father, Who Hated Guns And Had Never Been To Any Wars, Was The Bravest Man Who Ever Lived.

Finders Were Keepers Unless Title Was Proven.

I Suppose She Chose Me Because She Knew My Name; As I Read The Alphabet A Faint Line Appeared Between Her Eyebrows, And After Making Me Read Most Of My First Reader And The Stock-market Quotations From The Mobile Register Aloud, She Discovered That I Was Literate And Looked At Me With More Than Faint Distaste. Miss Caroline Told Me To Tell My Father Not To Teach Me Any More, It Would Interfere With My Reading.

I Think I'll Be A Clown When I Get Grown.... There Ain't One Thing In This World I Can Do About Folks Except Laugh, So I'm Gonna Join The Circus And Laugh My Head Off.

Try Fighting With Your Head For A Change... It's A Good One, Even If It Does Resist Learning.

My Book Had A Universal Theme. It's Not A "racial" Novel. It Portrays An Aspect Of Civilization, Not Necessarily Southern Civilization.

She Was Born In The Objective Case.

I Think I'll Be A Clown When I Get Grown,' Said Dill. Jem And I Stopped In Our Tracks. Yes Sir, A Clown,' He Said. 'there Ain't One Thing In This World I Can Do About Folks Except Laugh, So I'm Gonna Join The Circus And Laugh My Head Off.' You Got It Backwards, Dill,' Said Jem. 'clowns Are Sad, It's Folks That Laugh At Them.' Well I'm Gonna Be A New Kind Of Clown. I'm Gonna Stand In The Middle Of The Ring And Laugh At The Folks.

Don't You Study About Other Folks's Business Till You Take Care Of Your Own.

A Mob's Always Made Up Of People, No Matter What. Mr. Cunningham Was Part Of A Mob Last Night, But He Was Still A Man. Every Mob In Every Little Southern Town Is Always Made Up Of People You Know--doesn't Say Much For Them, Does It?

We're Paying The Highest Tribute You Can Pay A Man. We Trust Him To Do Right. It's That Simple.

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.

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William S. Paley

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