To Kill a Mockingbird

by Harper Lee

sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of – oh, of your father.’

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,

‘nigger-lover is just one of those terms that don’t mean anything – like snot-nose. It’s hard to explain – ignorant, trashy people use it when they think somebody’s favouring Negroes over and above themselves. It’s slipped into usage with some people like ourselves, when they want a common, ugly term to label somebody.’

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. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.

So if spitting in my face and threatening me saved Mayella Ewell one extra beating, that’s something I’ll gladly take.