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

Harper Lee

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

Curiosity Frustration Happiness Introduction Joy Kill Reading
People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.
HARPER LEE

Listening People Personal Perspective See
Are you proud of yourself tonight that you have insulted a total stranger whose circumstances you know nothing about?
HARPER LEE

Circumstance Insult Night Proud Stranger Yourself
Everybody’s gotta learn, nobody’s born knowing.
HARPER LEE

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

Beginning Cleaning End Faith Prejudice Reason
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.
HARPER LEE

Acknowledgement Choice Family Friendship Right Yourself
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 LEE

Answer Children Goodness Simplicity Yourself
Sometimes it’s better to bend the law a little in special cases.
HARPER LEE

Better Case Exception Law Special
With him, life was routine; without him, life was unbearable.
HARPER LEE

Himself Life Love Relationship Routine
Sometimes the Bible in the hands of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hands of another.
HARPER LEE

Hands Man Oneself Religious Worst
We’re paying the highest tribute you can pay a man. We trust him to do right. It’s that simple.
HARPER LEE

Man Myself Pay Right Simplicity Trust
Any writer worth his salt writes to please himself.
HARPER LEE

Himself Worth Writing
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.
HARPER LEE

Book Equality Reading Religious Thinking
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.
HARPER LEE

Courage Hands Ideas Reality Weapon
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.
HARPER LEE

Black Human Immoral Lying Man Race Trust White Woman
You rarely win, but sometimes you do.
HARPER LEE

Hope Inspirational Motivational One Liner Rare Win Yourself
I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.
HARPER LEE

Kind Myself People Thinking
Characters make their own plot. The dimensions of the characters determine the action of the novel.
HARPER LEE

Action Character Determination Dimension Novel Story
A man can condemn his enemies, but it’s wiser to know them.
HARPER LEE

Enemy Man Wisdom
But before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself.
HARPER LEE

Deep Live Myself People Spiritual
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.
HARPER LEE

Carry Color Deal Man People Place Right Room Way
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.
HARPER LEE

Bird Destroy Enjoyment Garden Heart Music Sin Sing
Bad language is a stage all children go through, and it dies with time when they learn they’re not attracting attention with it.
HARPER LEE

Attention Attraction Bad Children Language Time
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.
HARPER LEE

Best God Goodness Hope Limitation Myself Objective Talent Worst
Things are never as bad as they seem.
HARPER LEE

Appearance Bad One Liner
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.
HARPER LEE

Brave Father Hate Live Man Myself Thinking Time War Weapon
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.
HARPER LEE

Family Myself Possible Protection Son Ugly World

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

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

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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