Quote11

Novelist

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.

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Harper Lee

Novelist

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.

Hurting

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Harper Lee

Novelist

Sometimes the Bible in the hands of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hands of another.

Man

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Harper Lee

Novelist

Things are always better in the morning.

Mornings - Optimism - Positive

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Harper Lee

Novelist

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.

Quotes - Reading - Teaching

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Harper Lee

Novelist

Folks don't like to have somebody around knowing more than they do.

Knowledge

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Harper Lee

Novelist

Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives.

Watching

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Harper Lee

Novelist

Let the dead bury the dead.

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Harper Lee

Novelist

So many writers don't like to write... I like to write, and sometimes I'm afraid I like it too much, because when I get into work, I don't want to leave it. And as a result, I'll go for days and days and days without leaving my house.

Day - Fear - Leaving - Wants - Writing

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Harper Lee

Novelist

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.

Enjoying - Gardening

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Harper Lee

Novelist

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.

Kindness - Man - Trial

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Harper Lee

Novelist

Don't you study about other folks's business till you take care of your own.

Studying

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Harper Lee

Novelist

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.

Hate - Playing

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Harper Lee

Novelist

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.

Christianity

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Harper Lee

Novelist

Real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.

Inspiration

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Harper Lee

Novelist

A man can condemn his enemies, but it's wiser to know them.

Man

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Harper Lee

Novelist

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.

Curiosity

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Harper Lee

Novelist

One must lie under certain circumstances and at all times when one can't do anything about them.

Accept - Certainty - Lie

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Harper Lee

Novelist

"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."

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Harper Lee

Novelist

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.

Doing - Fear - Loss - Love - Reading

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