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.
HARPER LEEWhen 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.
HARPER LEEPeople generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.
HARPER LEEIt’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.
HARPER LEEWith him, life was routine; without him, life was unbearable.
HARPER LEEI 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.
HARPER LEEYou never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.
HARPER LEEPeople in their right minds never take pride in their talents.
HARPER LEEMy 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.
HARPER LEEShe 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.
HARPER LEEThings are always better in the morning.
HARPER LEEWriting 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.
HARPER LEEAre you proud of yourself tonight that you have insulted a total stranger whose circumstances you know nothing about?
HARPER LEEPrejudice, a dirty word, and faith, a clean one, have something in common: they both begin where reason ends.
HARPER LEEI wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand.
HARPER LEEIt’s better to be silent than to be a fool.
HARPER LEEThere’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.
HARPER LEE