Quote

Any writer worth his salt writes to please himself.

Harper Lee

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Harper Lee
Age: 89 †
Born: 1926
Born: April 28
Died: 2016
Died: February 19
Musician
Novelist
Poet Lawyer
Prosaist
Screenwriter
Writer
Monroeville
Alabama
Nelle Harper Lee
Please
Worth
Writer
Writing
Exorcism
Writes
Salt

More quotes by Harper Lee

Image
Atticus said naming people after Confederate generals made slow steady drinkers.
Harper Lee
Image
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.
Harper Lee
Image
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.
Harper Lee
Image
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
Image
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
Harper Lee
Image
I'm gonna be a new kind of clown. I'm gonna stand in the middle of the ring and laugh at the folks.
Harper Lee
Image
Rest assured, as long as I am alive any book purporting to be with my cooperation is a falsehood.
Harper Lee
Image
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
Image
I don't hafta take his sass
Harper Lee
Image
We're paying the highest tribute you can pay a man. We trust him to do right. It's that simple.
Harper Lee
Image
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.
Harper Lee
Image
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.
Harper Lee
Image
Next morning I awoke, looked out the window and nearly died of fright. My screams brought Atticus from his bathroom half-shaven. The world's endin', Atticus! Please do something -! I dragged him to the window and pointed. No it's not, he said. It's snowing.
Harper Lee
Image
Where are your pants, son?
Harper Lee
Image
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.
Harper Lee
Image
As a reader I loathe introductions...Introductions inhibit pleasure, they kill the joy of anticipation, they frustrate curiosity.
Harper Lee
Image
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.
Harper Lee
Image
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.
Harper Lee
Image
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.
Harper Lee
Image
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.
Harper Lee