Harper Lee Quotes

Harper Lee Quotes

The author of "To Kill a Mockingbird," Harper Lee, died today at the age of 89.  Lee lived in Monroeville, Alabama.  This article will present some of our favorite Harper Lee quotes and a Harper Lee biography.

Harper Lee Biography

Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama.  Lee was the youngest of four and her name, Nelle, is her grandmother's name spelled backwards.  Her father, Amasa Coleman Lee was a lawyer and her mother, Frances Cunningham Finch, was a homemaker.

Lee's father defended two black men that were accused of murder before he became a title lawyer.  He lost the case and both clients were hanged.

Harper Lee was a tomboy and her mother suffered from mental illness.  Lee's closest childhood friend was Truman Capote whom she protected.  Capote was often picked on for wearing fancy clothes.

In her teenage years, Lee developed an interest in English literature.  She graduated from Monroe County High School in 1944 and attended Huntingdon College for a year.

Harper Lee contributed to the University of Alabama's school newspaper and the 'Rammer Jammer', the school's humor magazine.  Lee spent one year at the University of Alabama's law school before realizing that she wanted to focus on writing.

Lee left law school after one year and attended Oxford University in England.  In 1923, Lee moved to Manhattan, NY where she reunited with her childhood friend Truman Capote.  Lee also became friends with Michael Martin Brown, a Broadway composer.

In 1956, Brown gave Lee the money she needed to quit her job as a ticket agent and devote her time to writing.  Soon after, Lee published a book that has beat the bible in book polls, "To Kill a Mockingbird," and the rest is history.

Quotes

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

Harper Lee Quotes

• "It was times like these when I though my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived."

Harper Lee Quotes

• "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view-until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."

Harper Lee Quotes

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

Harper Lee Quotes

• "People generally see what they look for and hear what they listen for."

Harper Lee Quotes

• "The book to read is not the one that thinks for you but the one which makes you think."

Harper Lee Quotes 

• "Some things should happen on soft pages, not cold metal."

Harper Lee Quotes

• "People generally see what they look for and hear what they listen for."

Harper Lee Quotes

• "All I want to be is the Jane Austen of south Alabama."

Harper Lee Quotes

• "Naturally, you don't sit down in 'white hot inspiration' and write with a burning flame in front of you. But since I knew I could never be happy being anything but a writer, and Mockingbird put itself together for me so accommodatingly, I kept at it because I knew it had to be my first novel, for better or for worse."

Harper Lee Quotes

• "You see, more than a simple matter of putting down words, writing is a process of self-discipline you must learn before you can call yourself a writer."

Harper Lee Quotes

• "Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."