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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

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
You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.
HARPER LEE

Person Point Understand View Yourself
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.
HARPER LEE

Deep Different Discipline Learning People Process Quite Writer Writing
I’m still old-fashioned. I love dusty old books and libraries.
HARPER LEE

Book Fashion Library Love Myself Old
Any writer worth his salt writes to please himself.
HARPER LEE

Himself Worth Writing
It’s better to be silent than to be a fool.
HARPER LEE

Better Fools Silence
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
People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.
HARPER LEE

Listening People Personal Perspective See
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
But sometimes we have to make the best of things, and the way we conduct ourselves when the chips are down.
HARPER LEE

Best Conduct Ourselves Time
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
Characters make their own plot. The dimensions of the characters determine the action of the novel.
HARPER LEE

Action Character Determination Dimension Novel Story
With him, life was routine; without him, life was unbearable.
HARPER LEE

Himself Life Love Relationship Routine
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.
HARPER LEE

Focus Himself Man Mindset Service
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.
HARPER LEE

Better Earth Equality Growth Harm Important Myself Poor Rich Thinking Truth Yourself
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.
HARPER LEE

Beautiful Language Love Struggle Substitute

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.

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Popular Authors

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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Harper Lee Quotes