Nelle Harper Lee was an American novelist best known for her 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird.
It won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and has become a classic of modern American literature. Lee has received numerous accolades and honorary degrees, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007 which was awarded for her contribution to literature. She assisted her close friend Truman Capote in his research for the book In Cold Blood (1966). Capote was the basis for the character Dill Harris in To Kill a Mockingbird.
The plot and characters of To Kill a Mockingbird are loosely based on Lee's observations of her family and neighbors, as well as an event that occurred near her hometown in 1936 when she was 10. The novel deals with the irrationality of adult attitudes towards race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s, as depicted through the eyes of two children. It was inspired by racist attitudes in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. She also wrote the novel Go Set a Watchman in the mid-1950s and published it in July 2015 as a sequel to Mockingbird, but it was later confirmed to be her first draft of Mockingbird.
She knows I know she tries.
That’s what makes the difference.
Again, as I had often met it in my own church, I was confronted with the Impurity of Women doctrine that seemed to preoccupy all clergymen.
“Look here.” With a click of her tongue she thrust out her bridgework, a gesture of cordiality that cemented our friendship.
People have a habit of doing everyday things even under the oddest conditions.
It’s not necessary to tell all you know.
It’s not ladylike — in the second place, folks don’t like to have somebody around knowin’ more than they do.
There was no point in saying you were sorry if you aren’t.
"Atticus, you must be wrong....”
“How’s that?”
“Well, most folks seem to think they’re right and you’re wrong....”
“They’re certainly entitled to think that, and they’re entitled to full respect for their opinions,” said Atticus, “but before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”
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- book Quotes /
- Harper Lee — Quotes from Author's Books