In the mid-1950s, I completed a novel called' Go Set a Watchman,' it features the character known as Scout as an adult woman, and I thought it a pretty decent effort. My editor, who was taken by the flashbacks to Scout's childhood, persuaded me to write a novel( what became' To Kill a Mockingbird') from the point of view of the young Scout.

Harper Lee

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You never really understand a person until you consider things fr... by Harper Lee

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

sunshine positivity powerful

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.

eyebrows reading father

As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it - whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, he is trash.

respect black-and-white men

People generally see what they look for, and hear what they liste... by Harper Lee

People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.

tkam powerful people

Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of another... There are just some kind of men who - who're so busy worrying about the next world they've never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.

tkam god men

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.

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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.

growing-up eye inspiring

Now, 75 years later in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods, and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books. Instant information is not for me. I prefer to search library stacks because when I work to learn something, I remember it. And, Oprah, can you imagine curling up in bed to read a computer? Weeping for Anna Karenina and being terrified by Hannibal Lecter, entering the heart of darkness with Mistah Kurtz, having Holden Caulfield ring you up — some things should happen on soft pages, not cold metal.

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

perseverance courage inspirational

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

prejudice common dirty

It's not necessary to tell all you know. by Harper Lee

It's not necessary to tell all you know.

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It's better to be silent than to be a fool. by Harper Lee

It's better to be silent than to be a fool.

silent fool

Things are always better in the morning. by Harper Lee

Things are always better in the morning.

positivity optimistic morning

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.

self writing thinking

The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's c... by Harper Lee

The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.

honesty powerful integrity

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.

get-better talent want

I never expected any sort of success with 'Mockingbird'... I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement.

encouragement enough giving

Everybody’s gotta learn, nobody’s born knowing. by Harper Lee

Everybody’s gotta learn, nobody’s born knowing.

born knowing

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does n... by Harper Lee

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

gratitude powerful appreciation

Now...in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, ipods and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books.

empty-rooms phones book