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My book had a universal theme. It's not a racial novel. It portrays an aspect of civilization, not necessarily Southern civilization.

Harper Lee

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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
Universal
Civilization
Novel
Portrays
Book
Racial
Southern
Theme
Necessarily
Aspect

More quotes by Harper Lee

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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.
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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.
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I try to give'em a reason, you see. It helps folks if they can latch onto a reason.
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Where are your pants, son?
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When you're at the top, there's only one way to go.
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People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.
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Let the dead bury the dead.
Harper Lee
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It's quite a thing, if you've never been in or known a small southern town. The people are not particularly sophisticated, naturally. They're not worldly wise in any way. But they tell you a story whenever they see you.
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Any writer worth his salt writes to please himself.
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Talking to Francis gave me the sensation of settling slowly to the bottom of the ocean.
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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.
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Rest assured, as long as I am alive any book purporting to be with my cooperation is a falsehood.
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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.
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She's an old lady and she's ill. You just hold your head high and be a gentleman. Whatever she says to you, it's your job not to let her make you mad.
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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.
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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.
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So it took an eight-year-old child to bring 'em to their senses.... That proves something - that a gang of wild animals can be stopped, simply because they're still human. Hmp, maybe we need a police force of children.
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I do my best to love everybody
Harper Lee
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They're ugly, but those are the facts of life.
Harper Lee
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There is one way in this country in which all men are created equal—there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president. That institution, gentlemen, is the court.
Harper Lee