Turtles don't feel, stupid," said Jem. "Were you ever a turtle, h... by Harper Lee

Turtles don't feel, stupid," said Jem. "Were you ever a turtle, huh?

Harper Lee

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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.

language struggle beautiful

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.

gun real courage

Maycomb was a tired old town, even in 1932 when I first knew it. Somehow, it was hotter then. Men's stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon after their three o'clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frosting from sweating and sweet talcum. The day was twenty-four hours long, but it seemed longer. There's no hurry, for there's nowhere to go and nothing to buy... and no money to buy it with.

tired morning sweet

Dill said striking a match under a turtle was hateful. “How do you know a match don't hurt him?” “Turtles can't feel, stupid,” said Jem. “Where you ever a turtle, huh?

turtles stupid hurt

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.

tkam silly looks

We're paying the highest tribute you can pay a man. We trust him... by Harper Lee

We're paying the highest tribute you can pay a man. We trust him to do right. It's that simple.

powerful simple men

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.

I was born good but had grown progressively worse every year. Sco... by Harper Lee

I was born good but had grown progressively worse every year. Scout

jem-and-scout tkam years

People who write for reward by way of recognition or monetary gain don't know what they're doing. They're in the category of those who write; they are not writers. Writing is simply something you must do. It's rather like virtue in that it is its own reward. Writing is selfish and contradictory in its terms. First of all, you're writing for an audience of one, you must please the one person you're writing for. Yourself.

audience-of-one selfish writing

Writing is something you'll never learn in any university or at any school. It's something that is within you, and if it isn't there, nothing can put it there.

university writing school

Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I'd have the facts. by Harper Lee

Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I'd have the facts.

jem-and-scout tkam adjectives

I remember when my daddy gave me that gun. He told me that I should never point it at anything in the house; and that he'd rather I'd shoot at tin cans in the backyard. But he said that sooner or later he supposed the temptation to go after birds would be too much, and that I could shoot all the blue jays I wanted - if I could hit 'em; but to remember it was a sin to kill a mockingbird.

tin-cans gun blue

Are you proud of yourself tonight that you have insulted a total stranger whose circumstances you know nothing about?

empathy tonight proud

I try to give'em a reason, you see. It helps folks if they can la... by Harper Lee

I try to give'em a reason, you see. It helps folks if they can latch onto a reason.

ems trying giving

Characters make their own plot. The dimensions of the characters... by Harper Lee

Characters make their own plot. The dimensions of the characters determine the action of the novel.

plot writing character

There are some men in this world who are born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father's one of them.

jobs men father

You rarely win, but sometimes you do. by Harper Lee

You rarely win, but sometimes you do.

tkam winning sometimes

There's a lot of ugly things in this world, son. I wish I could keep 'em all away from you. That's never possible.

ugly-things wish son

Southern lawyers don't read novels much. by Harper Lee

Southern lawyers don't read novels much.

lawyer novel southern

Bad language is a stage all children go through, and it dies with time when they learn they're not attracting attention with it.

tkam attention children