Mockingbird Quotes

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Quotes About Mockingbird

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Then I pace the floor, rocking him softly in my arms, patting his ass. You know I must be really desperate - because I try singing: Hush, little baby, don't say a word Daddy's gonna buy you a . . . I stop - because why the fuck would any baby want a mockingbird? None of those nursery rhymes make any goddamn sense. I don't know any other lullabies, so I go for the next best thing, "Enter Sandman" by Metallica: Take my hand, We're off to never-never land . . . ~ Emma Chase
Mockingbird quotes by Emma Chase
DAISIES

It is possible, I suppose that sometime
we will learn everything
there is to learn: what the world is, for example,
and what it means. I think this as I am crossing
from one field to another, in summer, and the
mockingbird is mocking me, as one who either
knows enough already or knows enough to be
perfectly content not knowing. Song being born
of quest he knows this: he must turn silent
were he suddenly assaulted with answers. Instead

oh hear his wild, caustic, tender warbling ceaselessly
unanswered. At my feet the white-petalled daisies display
the small suns of their center piece, their -- if you don't
mind my saying so -- their hearts. Of course
I could be wrong, perhaps their hearts are pale and
narrow and hidden in the roots. What do I know?
But this: it is heaven itself to take what is given,
to see what is plain; what the sun lights up willingly;
for example -- I think this
as I reach down, not to pick but merely to touch --
the suitability of the field for the daisies, and the
daisies for the field. ~ Mary Oliver
Mockingbird quotes by Mary Oliver
I don't read books. I read 'On the Road' in high school, and that was awesome, so I guess that's my favorite book. 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' even though I didn't read it, that's the greatest story. SparkNotes came in when I was in high school, and that was the greatest invention. ~ Meghan Trainor
Mockingbird quotes by Meghan Trainor
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. - ATTICUS FINCH, FROM HARPER LEE'S TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD ~ Kristin Hannah
Mockingbird quotes by Kristin Hannah
Sex was absolutely not allowed to be scheduled, at least not by explicit discussion, but I had become familiar with the sequence of events likely to precipitate it: a blueberry muffin from Blue Sky Bakery, a triple shot of espresso from Otha's, removal of my shirt, and my impersonation of Gregory Peck in the role of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. ~ Graeme Simsion
Mockingbird quotes by Graeme Simsion
I have finished To Kill a Mockingbird. It is now my favorite book of all time, but then again, I always think that until I read another book. ~ Stephen Chbosky
Mockingbird quotes by Stephen Chbosky
Summer was on the way; Jem and I awaited it with impatience. Summer was our best season: it was sleeping on the back screened porch in cots, or trying to sleep in the tree house; summer was everything good to eat; it was a thousand colors in a parched landscape; but most of all, summer was Dill. ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
Hey, Mr. Cunningham. How's your entailment gettin' along? ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
Every story has already been told. Once you've read Anna Karenina, Bleak House, The Sound and the Fury, To Kill a Mockingbird and A Wrinkle in Time, you understand that there is really no reason to ever write another novel. Except that each writer brings to the table, if she will let herself, something that no one else in the history of time has ever had.
[Commencement Speech; Mount Holyoke College, May 23, 1999] ~ Anna Quindlen
Mockingbird quotes by Anna Quindlen
With him, life was routine; without him, life was unbearable. ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
I never expected any sort of success with 'Mockingbird' ... I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement. ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
I couldn't go to church and worship God if I didn't try to help that man. ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
People in their right minds never take pride in their talents. ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
'To Kill a Mockingbird' represents Hollywood at its very finest, when a popular film could truly contain a message. It has one of the most moving scores of all time. ~ Mark Mothersbaugh
Mockingbird quotes by Mark Mothersbaugh
Dill was in hearty agreement with this plan of action. Dill was becoming something of a trail anyways, following Jem about ... He only grew closer to Jem. (Lee 55) ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
Well, it'd be sort of like shootin' a mockingbird wouldn't it? ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
When he was nearly thirty-six, my brother Jem got his heart badly broken when his fourth marriage fell apart, mostly because his wife never could get used to Boo, who lived with them and creeped her out by making little wooden dolls of her and putting them in the hollow tree out front. ~ Silas House
Mockingbird quotes by Silas House
Boo and I walked up the steps to the porch. His fingers found the doorknob. He gently released my hand, opened the door, enter inside, and shut the door behind him. I never saw him again. ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
In 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' I was just playing and having a good time. ~ Mary Badham
Mockingbird quotes by Mary Badham
When I was a kid, they bussed us down to a screening of 'To Kill a Mockingbird' in an old theater, and it was just a great experience. ~ Raymond Cruz
Mockingbird quotes by Raymond Cruz
Today the mockingbird does not sound very happy. It sounds if it is coming apart. As of the very heart of itself-its song-is breaking into pieces and flying off in a hundred directions. ~ Jerry Spinelli
Mockingbird quotes by Jerry Spinelli
There are some men in this world who are born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father's one of them. ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
Like Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, I saw the effortless grace and elegance of the women around me and realized that "there was some skill involved in being a girl," and I knew I didn't just want to grow up and be a woman. I wanted to grow up and be a lady. ~ Sophie Hudson
Mockingbird quotes by Sophie Hudson
We have travelled into the past and returned to find that our present is not quite the same as we left it. Atticus Finch will never again be the white knight we once thought him.
And yet the mockingbird still sings - no longer a song of innocence, but maybe one of experience; a song that combines sorrow, forgiveness - and, ultimately, a kind of hope. ~ Joanne Harris
Mockingbird quotes by Joanne Harris
But Mockingjays were never a weapon," said Madge. "They're just songbirds. Right?"
"Yeah, I guess so," I said, But it's not true. A mockingbird is just a songbird. A mockingjay is a creature the capitol never intended to exist. They hadn't counted on the highly controlled jabberjay having the brains to adapt to the wild, to thrive in a new form. They hadn't anticipated its will to live. ~ Suzanne Collins
Mockingbird quotes by Suzanne Collins
I've been writing as long as I've been able to form words. I never wrote with an idea of publishing anything until I began working on '[To Kill a] Mockingbird'. I think that what went before may have been a rather subconscious form of learning how to write, of training myself. ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
You taste injustice, even if it's fictional, really taste it,it has a way of doing that. Sometimes, you can never put the shoe on the other foot. We can't go back in time and know what it was like to be a black person then. Even today, when things are supposed to be so much better, not one of you can understand what it's like to be black, to live with the knowledge of what happened to your ancestry and still face injustice. But that book makes us taste it and, reading it, we know how bitter that taste is and we know we don't like it. But that bitter wakes you up, and when you wake up, you open your mind to things in this world, you make yourself think. Then you'll decide you don't like the taste of injustice, not for you and not for anyone, and you'll understand that even though all the battles can't be won, that doesn't mean you won't fight. ~ Kristen Ashley
Mockingbird quotes by Kristen Ashley
This case is just as racist as the fictional, but unfortunately all too typical case, in 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. ~ John Simon
Mockingbird quotes by John Simon
STARS

Here in my head, language
keeps making its tiny noises.

How can I hope to be friends
with the hard white stars

whose flaring ad hissing are not speech
but a pure radiance?

How can I hope to be friends
with the yawning spaces between them

where nothing, ever, is spoken?
Tonight, at the edge of the field,

I stood up very still, and looked up,
and tried to be empty of words.

What joy was it, that almost found me?
What amiable peace?

Then it was over, the wind
roused up in the oak trees behind me

and I fell back, easily.
Earth has a hundred thousand pure contraltos-

even the distant night bird
as it talks threat, as it talks love

over the cold, black fields.
Once, deep in the woods,

I found the skull of a bear
and it was utterly silent-

and once a river otter, in a steel trap,
and it too was utterly silent.

What can we do
but keep breathing in and out,

modest and willing, and in our places?
Listen, listen, I'm forever saying,

Listen to the river, to the hawk, to the hoof,
to the mockingbird, to the jack-in-the-pulpit-

then I come up with a few words, like a gift.
Even as now.

Even as the darkness has remained the pure, deep darkness.
Even as the stars have ~ Mary Oliver
Mockingbird quotes by Mary Oliver
Well, for starters, Abraham Lincoln didn't write 'To Kill a Mockingbird. ~ Jeff Kinney
Mockingbird quotes by Jeff Kinney
I've become one of those people who prowl around at night in their cars. God, I am the town's Boo Radley, just like in To Kill A Mockingbird. ~ Kathryn Stockett
Mockingbird quotes by Kathryn Stockett
Momma's gonna buy you a mockingbird . . . Margo stirred and crawled to her mother, dragging one twisted leg behind her. Maddie followed. They huddled together, the three of them, pressed against the Plexiglas. ~ Ilona Andrews
Mockingbird quotes by Ilona Andrews
Had her conduct been more friendly toward me, I would have felt sorry for her. She was a pretty little thing. ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
I was still in college when 'To Kill a Mockingbird' came out in 1960. I remember it had a kind of an electrifying effect on this country; this was a time when there were a lot of good books coming out. ~ Tom Brokaw
Mockingbird quotes by Tom Brokaw
I realized I really enjoyed theatre, so I did shows up in Seattle like 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and 'Lost in Yonkers.' ~ Nick Robinson
Mockingbird quotes by Nick Robinson
But in the book," I say, "the mockingbird is supposed to be a symbol of innocence. That's why it's a sin to kill one."
"Who says it's a symbol of innocence?" asks Mort.
"Teachers," I tell him. "Book reviewers, critics --"
"Wikipedia," Elena calls from behind the window display. ~ Paul Acampora
Mockingbird quotes by Paul Acampora
I lived an idyllic 'Huckleberry Finn' life in a tiny town. Climbing trees. Tagging after brothers. Happy. Barefoot on my pony. It was 'To Kill a Mockingbird'-esque. ~ Sissy Spacek
Mockingbird quotes by Sissy Spacek
I laid my lips against hers and smiled. "When I come home, I'm building you your dream library. With tall ladders and everything. And then I'm going to make love to you somewhere between The Odyssey and To Kill a Mockingbird. ~ Brittainy C. Cherry
Mockingbird quotes by Brittainy C. Cherry
I found the role model to inspire me to handle such situations with more grace, maturity, and, most important of all, results...

I reread Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, and I realized I had found my hero in Atticus Finch...

It hit me like a thunderbolt. You see, Atticus knows everything Huck knows. He knows society is racist. He recognizes the violence, hypocrisy, injustice, and ignorance of society. He knows he is going to lose.

But Atticus does not light out for the territory. He goes into the courtroom to fight the fight as best as he can, because it is what he believes in. He doesn't do it because of the law, or the rules, or what people will think. He has his own code, and he lives by it as well as he can.

I still cry when I think about this. My classroom is my courtroom. I am going to lose more than I win. There are many times when, despite my efforts, I will lose children to poverty, ignorance, and, most tragically, a society that embraces mediocrity...

I've made plenty of mistakes since rediscovering Atticus, but I've always been able to hold my head up to my students. Atticus showed me the way. ~ Rafe Esquith
Mockingbird quotes by Rafe Esquith
Really? Well, you'd definitely be interested in the fact that I just read To Kill A Mockingbird."
I smiled and elbowed him. "Everyone's read that."
I've read it five times."
Nu-uh."
Yep. I can even quote parts of it."
That's bullpoopie."
And then Stark, my big, bad, macho Warrior raised his voice, put on a little girl's Southern drawl, and said, "'Uncle Jack? What's a whore-lady?'"
I do not think that's the most important quote from that book," I said, but laughed anyway.
Okay, how about: 'Ain't no snot-nosed slut of a schoolteacher ever born c'n make me do nothin.!' That one's really my favorite."
You got a twisted mind, James Stark. ~ Kristin Cast
Mockingbird quotes by Kristin Cast
Meghan and I talked about music - she loved Ella Fitzgerald. "What about all the hip acts that college kids love? Do you like any of them?"
"Like who?"
"I don't know all their names. Snoop Diggity Do and all those hip cats." Meghan shook her head and laughed. We talked about movies - she loved anything made before 1964. No wonder I thought she was older; she was an old soul in a young body.
"So what's your favorite movie?" I asked.
"To Kill a Mockingbird." My mother would have liked Meghan. She made my father and me watch To Kill a Mockingbird with her when I was in first grade. It must have been the twentieth time she'd seen it, but she still cried at the parts that made her weepy-eyed the first nineteen times. ~ Donna VanLiere
Mockingbird quotes by Donna VanLiere
No; we have been as usual asking the wrong question. It does not matter a hoot what the mockingbird on the chimney is singing. The real and proper question is: Why is it beautiful? ~ Bertrand Russell
Mockingbird quotes by Bertrand Russell
Understanding people's difficulties and - just as crucial - helping people understand their own difficulties and teaching them concrete ways to help themselves will help them better deal with their own lives and, in turn, ours. ~ Kathryn Erskine
Mockingbird quotes by Kathryn Erskine
Stars flicker above, points of bright ice in a dark river. I pull a heavy sheepskin around my legs and stretch my feet toward the fire. Despite the cold, Liam plays his flute, the sound whistling through the night. Soon my eyes are heavy, my head nodding.I open my eyes at the deep melodious baritone of Salvius's voice telling a tale. Liam's flute is silent now. I have heard Salvius tell many tales on market days; he is known for his memory of wandering minstrels and mummers who visit us at Whitsunday and through Midsummer. Salvius is a mockingbird: he can give a fair charade of the rhythmic tones of any wandering bard or any noble of the Royal Court.In this darkness, his eyes catch the light like a cat in the night. ~ Ned Hayes
Mockingbird quotes by Ned Hayes
Mrs. Cheerson, our old teacher? She gave us an essay to write over the holiday. It was on To Kill a Mockingbird, which I read and it was good, and I think it's stupid to spoil a good book by writing an essay on it. So I didn't do it. ~ Jaclyn Moriarty
Mockingbird quotes by Jaclyn Moriarty
I would come, many years later, to understand why 'To Kill A Mockingbird' is considered 'an important novel', but when I first read it at 11, I was simply absorbed by the way it evoked the mysteries of childhood, of treasures discovered in trees, and games played with an exotic summer friend. ~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Mockingbird quotes by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Mountain Center"
Maureen McLane


The cords are strong
a loose weave strung
between white pines.

Now I will offer
a transcript of today's news
and you'll know it

as conceptual poetry
as this hammock
is a plagiarism

of all other hammocks
in all poems & the world.
My dream of originality

a copy
of an idea
no one had.

Like everyone
"I have wasted my life."

Magpie day
mockingbird night
cuckoo mind ~ Maureen McLane
Mockingbird quotes by Maureen McLane
Men, unlike mockingbirds, have the capacity for systematic self-delusion. We echo each other with equal precision, equal eloquence, equal assurance. ~ Robert Ardrey
Mockingbird quotes by Robert Ardrey
Atticus said to Jem one day, "I'd rather you shot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it. "Your father's right," she said. "Mockingbirds don't do one thing except make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corn cribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird. ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
The Meaning of Birds

Of the genesis of birds we know nothing,
save the legend they are descended
from reptiles: flying, snap-jawed lizards
that have somehow taken to air. Better the story
that they were crab-apple blossoms
or such, blown along by the wind; time after time
finding themselves tossed from perhaps a seaside tree,
floated or lifted over the thin blue lazarine waves
until something in the snatch of color
began to flutter and rise. But what does it matter
anyway how they got up high
in the trees or over the rusty shoulders
of some mountain? There they are,
little figments,
animated---soaring. And if occasionally a tern washes up
greased and stiff, and sometimes a cardinal
or a mockingbird slams against the windshield
and your soul goes oh God and shivers
at the quick and unexpected end
to beauty, it is not news that we live in a world
where beauty is unexplainable
and suddenly ruined
and has its own routines. We are often far
from home in a dark town, and our griefs
are difficult to translate into a language
understood by others. We sense the downswing of time
and learn, having come of age, that the reluctant
concessions made in youth
are not sufficient to heat the cold drawn breath
of age. Perhaps temperance
was not enough, foresight or even wisdom
fallacious, not only in ~ Charlie Smith
Mockingbird quotes by Charlie Smith
I don't think I'll ever lose the feeling that I had when I read 'To Kill a Mockingbird' - Harper Lee was going back into her childhood. I grew up in a real small town - Lee's was in the South, mine the Northwest - but small towns have a lot in common. There was such a revelation in knowing that a story could be told like that. ~ Chris Crutcher
Mockingbird quotes by Chris Crutcher
'To Kill a Mockingbird' is really two stories. One is a coming-of-age tale told from the point of view of Scout Finch, a girl of about nine, and her slightly older brother, Jem. The second story concerns their father, attorney Atticus Finch, who has been appointed to defend a black man, Tom Robinson, falsely accused of raping a white woman. ~ Charles J. Shields
Mockingbird quotes by Charles J. Shields
Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passin'. ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
I sincerely congratulate you on the arrival of the mockingbird. Learn all the children to venerate it as a superior being in the form of a bird, or as a being which will haunt them if any harm is done to itself or its eggs. ~ Thomas Jefferson
Mockingbird quotes by Thomas Jefferson
There was nowhere to go, but I turned to go and met Atticus's vest front. I buried my head in it and listened to the small internal noises that went on behind the light blue cloth: his watch ticking, the faint crackle of his starched shirt, the soft sound of his breathing.
'Your stomach's growling,' I said.
'I know it,' he said. ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
(Brin) 'How good is your lawyer, on a scale of Atticus Finch to Franklin and Bash? ~ Lisa Henry
Mockingbird quotes by Lisa Henry
Branch Bacardi, star of The Da Vinci Load, To Drill a Mockingbird, The Postman Always Cums Twice, Chitty Chitty Gang Bang, The Twilight Bone, A Tale of Two Titties... ~ Chuck Palahniuk
Mockingbird quotes by Chuck Palahniuk
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." "Miss ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
As a matter of fact, I constantly tell audiences all over the world that the single greatest icon of American culture from the publication of "To Kill A Mockingbird" was that novel so that if we say, what conversation can we have that would lead us on a road of tolerance, and teachers have decided that if you're going to teach values in a school in America, the answer that American teachers at all kinds of schools have come up with, just let Harper Lee teach "To Kill A Mockingbird." And then all the teacher has to do is stand back and guide the discussion. ~ Wayne Flynt
Mockingbird quotes by Wayne Flynt
The second purchase was my ranch, Mockingbird Hill. The third purchase was Longhorn cattle. ~ Janine Turner
Mockingbird quotes by Janine Turner
I've been thinking ... Maybe you're a mockingbird ... Mockingbirds imitate the songs of other birds ... No, I've never heard of any copyright problems. ~ Charles M. Schulz
Mockingbird quotes by Charles M. Schulz
I never understood her preoccupation with heredity. Somewhere, I had received the impression that Fine Folks were people who did the best they could with the sense they had, but Aunt Alexandra was of the opinion, obliquely expressed, that the longer a family had been squatting on one patch of land the finer it was. ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
To kill a mockingbird is a sin ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
I say guilt, gentlemen, because it was guilt that motivated her. She has committed no crime, she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society. ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
Whoa," says Michael.
"What is it?" I ask.
Michael shakes his head in disbelief. He points at the screen. "Wil Wheaton saw an I Kill the Mockingbird flyer and tweeted about it."
"Wil Wheaton?" I say.
"Wil Wheaton!" Michael says again. "Wil Wheaton!"
"Who is Wil Wheaton?"
"Wil Wheaton!"
"Michael," says Elena, "no matter how many times you say his name we still don't know who you're talking about."
"He's a gamer!" Michael takes the mouse from Elena and clicks on Wil Wheaton's profile. "He's a total geek hero! He's an author and an actor. He used to be on STAR TREK."
I point to the description that Wil Wheaton has written about himself. "It says here that he's just a guy."
"Just a guy who used to be on STAR TREK!" says Michael. ~ Paul Acampora
Mockingbird quotes by Paul Acampora
meander, v.

"...because when it all comes down to it, there's no such thing as a two-hit wonder. So it's better just to have that one song that everyone knows, instead of diluting it with a follow-up that only half succeeds. I mean, who really cares what Soft Cell's next single was, as long as we have 'Tainted Love'?"
I stop. You're still listening.
"Wait," I say. "What was I talking about? How did we get to 'Tainted Love'?"
"Let's see," you say, "I believe we started roughly at the Democratic gains in the South, then jumped back to the election of 1948, dipping briefly into northern constructions of the South, vis-a-vis Steel Magnolias, Birth of a Nation, Johnny Cash, and Fried Green Tomatoes. Which landed you on To Kill a Mockingbird, and how it is both Southern and universal, which -- correct me if I'm wrong -- got us to Harper Lee and her lack of a follow-up novel, intersected with the theory, probably wrong, that Truman Capote wrote the novel, then hopping over to literary one-hit wonders, and using musical one-hit wonders to make a point about their special place in our culture. I think."
"Thank you," I say. "That's wonderful. ~ David Levithan
Mockingbird quotes by David Levithan
Even though I didn't think I'd like empathy it kind of creeps up on you and makes you feel all warm and glowy inside. I don't think I want to go back to life without empathy. ~ Kathryn Erskine
Mockingbird quotes by Kathryn Erskine
Before Jem looks at anyone else he looks at me, and I've tried to live so I can look squarely back at him. ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
You don't have to learn much out of books, it's like if you want to learn about cows, you go milk one. ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
The wagon went down from the bluffs into the wooded creek bottoms, and high in a treetop a mockingbird began to sing.
"I never heard a mockingbird sing so early," said Ma, and Pa answered, softly, "He is telling us good-by. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder
Mockingbird quotes by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Like Scout and her father in To Kill a Mockingbird, my father would pull me onto his lap each night in our four-room apartment and read aloud. ~ Jim Trelease
Mockingbird quotes by Jim Trelease
My favorite scene in all of movies is Gregory Peck in 'To Kill A Mockingbird': You see him where he's on the porch, and his face is almost completely obscured. I don't want to see his face. ~ Mary-Louise Parker
Mockingbird quotes by Mary-Louise Parker
THE MOCKINGBIRD All summer the mockingbird in his pearl-gray coat and his white-windowed wings flies from the hedge to the top of the pine and begins to sing, but it's neither lilting nor lovely, for he is the thief of other sounds - whistles and truck brakes and dry hinges plus all the songs of other birds in his neighborhood; mimicking and elaborating, he sings with humor and bravado, so I have to wait a long time for the softer voice of his own life to come through. He begins by giving up all his usual flutter and settling down on the pine's forelock then looking around as though to make sure he's alone; then he slaps each wing against his breast, where his heart is, and, copying nothing, begins easing into it as though it was not half so easy as rollicking, as though his subject now was his true self, which of course was as dark and secret as anyone else's, and it was too hard - perhaps you understand - to speak or to sing it to anything or anyone but the sky. ~ Mary Oliver
Mockingbird quotes by Mary Oliver
'To Kill A Mockingbird' is one of my favourite novels, my mum brought me up reading it, and it never fails to move me. ~ Jessica Marais
Mockingbird quotes by Jessica Marais
My mother read it when she was a teenager," Henry said, picking a piece of lint off his lap. "To Kill a Mockingbird. The day she accepted my father's proposal, she gave him a copy and told him that Atticus Finch is the kind of father she wants her husband to be. ~ Ophelia London
Mockingbird quotes by Ophelia London
I think crime fiction is a great way to talk about social issues, whether 'To Kill A Mockingbird' or 'The Lovely Bones;' violence is a way to open up that information you want to get out to the reader. ~ Karin Slaughter
Mockingbird quotes by Karin Slaughter
For the life of me, I did not understand how he[Atticus] could sit there in cold blood and read a newspaper when his only son stood an excellent chance of being murdered with a Confederate Army relic. ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird. ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
Where did you hide your Mockingbirds?" he asks.
"Ornithology," she replies.
"You hid TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD with the bird books?" I ask.
Elena shrugs. "I was being ironic. ~ Paul Acampora
Mockingbird quotes by Paul Acampora
Mockingbirds are the true artists of the bird kingdom. Which is to say, although they're born with a song of their own, an innate riff that happens to be one of the most versatile of all ornithological expressions, mocking birds aren't content to merely play the hand that is dealt them. Like all artists, they are out to rearrange reality. Innovative, willful, daring, not bound by the rules to which others may blindly adhere, the mockingbird collects snatches of birdsong from this tree and that field, appropriates them, places them in new and unexpected contexts, recreates the world from the world. For example, a mockingbird in South Carolina was heard to blend the songs of thirty-two different kinds of birds into a ten-minute performance, a virtuoso display that serve no practical purpose, falling, therefore, into the realm of pure art. ~ Tom Robbins
Mockingbird quotes by Tom Robbins
I thought she was going to spit in it, which was the only reason anybody in Maycomb held out his hand: it was a time-honored method of sealing oral contracts. Wondering what bargain we had made, I turned to the class for an answer, but the class looked back at me in puzzlement. ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
We saw Uncle Jack every Christmas, and every Christmas he yelled across the street for Miss Maudie to come marry him. Miss Mauide would yell back, "Call a little louder, Jack Finch, and they'll hear you the post office, I haven't heard you yet!" Jem and I thought this a strange way to ask for a lady's hand in marriage, but then again Uncle Jack was rather strange. ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
Try fighting with your head for a change ...
it's a good one, even if it does resist learning. ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
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. ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
The gum looked fresh. I sniffed it and it smelled all right. I licked it and waited for a while. When I did not die, I crammed it into my mouth: Wrigley's Double Mint. ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
If you think Atticus Finch went home at night and slept easy because he knew he was doing the right thing, you're wrong ... Because even one voice in a wilderness of ignorance is a voice that is heard by someone. Because every woman and man, no matter their color or their religion, is entitled to a good defense. And because Jem and Scout would grow up to be like their father, spreading his wisdom, understanding his compassion and sharing his strength which are the only, the only weapons we have against injustice. ~ Kristen Ashley
Mockingbird quotes by Kristen Ashley
Let's be Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. Atticus's children, Scout and Jem, carefully watch their father's behavior as the house next door to theirs burns to the ground. As the fire creeps closer and closer to the Finches' home, Atticus appears so calm that Scout and Jem finally decide that "it ain't time to worry yet." We need to be Atticus. Hands in our pockets. Calm. Believing. So that our children will look at us and even with a fire raging in front of them, they'll say, "Huh. Guess it's not time to worry yet. ~ Glennon Doyle Melton
Mockingbird quotes by Glennon Doyle Melton
Early in To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem refuses to come down from the tree house and eat breakfast because his father won't play football for the Methodists. Atticus goes out to invite Jem in to eat, but Jem refuses. Atticus doesn't get into a long discussion. He has made his offer and quietly walks away when Jem stubbornly declares he will not come down. 'Suit yourself,' says Atticus simply. He can rest easy because he's done his job as a loving father, and if Jem decides to go hungry, that's his choice. The wise father knows when to walk away and leave well enough alone.

As a teacher , I wish I had realized this early in my career, but at least I know it now. Whether I deal with administrators, parents, teachers, or students, I have my answer. ~ Rafe Esquith
Mockingbird quotes by Rafe Esquith
I have 'To Kill A Mockingbird' signed by Harper Lee. That is my prized possession. ~ Nancy Grace
Mockingbird quotes by Nancy Grace
When I read 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' I was so struck by the universality of small towns. ~ Tom Brokaw
Mockingbird quotes by Tom Brokaw
That boy is your company. And if he wants to eat up that tablecloth, you let him, you hear? ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
Only the mockingbird sings at the edge of the woods. ~ Walter Tevis
Mockingbird quotes by Walter Tevis
Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro comes up, is something I don't pretend to understand. ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
All theories
like cliches
shot to hell,
all these small faces
looking up
beautiful and believing;
I wish to weep
but sorrow is
stupid.
I wish to believe but believe is a
graveyard.
we have narrowed it down to
the butcherknife and the
mockingbird
wish us
luck. ~ Charles Bukowski
Mockingbird quotes by Charles Bukowski
I shake my head. I pick up the rake and start making the dead-leaf pile neater. A blister pops and stains the rake handle like a tear. Dad nods and walks to the Jeep, keys jangling in his fingers. A mockingbird lands on a low oak branch and scolds me. I rake the leaves out of my throat.
Me: Can you buy some seeds? Flower seeds? ~ Laurie Halse Anderson
Mockingbird quotes by Laurie Halse Anderson
Books are useless! I only ever read one book, To Kill A Mockingbird, and it gave me absolutely no insight on how to kill mockingbirds! - Homer Simpson ~ Matt Groening
Mockingbird quotes by Matt Groening
They all stood unwilling on the sandbar, holding to the net. In the eastern sky were the familiar castles and the round towers to which they were used, gray, pink, and blue, growing darker and filling with thunder. Lightning flickered in the sun along their thick walls. But in the west the sun shone with such a violence that in an illumination like a long-prolonged glare of lightning the heavens looked black and white; all color left the world, the goldenness of everything was like a memory, and only heat, a kind of glamor and oppression, lay on their heads. The thick heavy trees on the other side of the river were brushed with mile-long streaks of silver, and a wind touched each man on the forehead. At the same time there was a long roll of thunder that began behind them, came up and down mountains and valleys of air, passed over their heads, and left them listening still. With a small, near noise a mockingbird followed it, the little white bars of its body flashing over the willow trees.

'We are here for a storm now,' Virgil said. 'We will have to stay till it's over.'

("The Wide Net") ~ Eudora Welty
Mockingbird quotes by Eudora Welty
I first read Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird' as a teen in school, like you did. I read the book alone, eating lunch at my locker, neatly scored oranges my mother divided into five lines with a circle at the top, so my fingers could dig more easily into the orange skin. To this day, the smell of oranges reminds me of 'Mockingbird.' ~ Margaret Stohl
Mockingbird quotes by Margaret Stohl
A green and yellow parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door, kept repeating over and over: "Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapristi! That's all right!" He could speak a little Spanish, and also a language which nobody understood, unless it was the mockingbird that hung on the other side of the door, whistling his fluty notes out upon the breeze with maddening persistence. ~ Kate Chopin
Mockingbird quotes by Kate Chopin
Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I'd have the facts. ~ Harper Lee
Mockingbird quotes by Harper Lee
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