John Grisham famous quotes

In life, finding a voice is speaking and living the truth. Each of you is an original. Each of you has a distinctive voice. When you find it, your story will be told. You will be heard.
-- John Grisham

#Voice #Stories #Heard

I always try to tell a good story, one with a compelling plot that will keep the pages turning. That is my first and primary goal. Sometimes I can tackle an issue-homelessness, tobacco litigation, insurance fraud, the death penalty-and wrap a good story around it.
-- John Grisham

#Issues #Goal #Trying

Live your life the way you want. You'll figure it out.
-- John Grisham

#Live Your Life #Want #Way

Nobody wants to read about the honest lawyer down the street who does real estate loans and wills. If you want to sell books, you have to write about the interesting lawyers - the guys who steal all the money and take off. That's the fun stuff.
-- John Grisham

#Fun #Real #Book

Shame was an emotion he had abandoned years earlier. Addicts know no shame. You disgrace yourself so many times you become immune to it.
-- John Grisham

#Recovery #Years #Addiction

When witnesses concoct lies, they often miss the obvious.
-- John Grisham

#Lying #Missing #Obvious

If you're gonna be stupid you gotta be tough.
-- John Grisham

#Stupid #Tough

I'm alone and outgunned, scared and inexperienced, but I'm right.
-- John Grisham

#Scared

I earned my first steady paycheck watering rose bushes at a nursery for a dollar an hour.
-- John Grisham

#Rose #Nurse #Firsts

Life is short..Live to the fullest..
-- John Grisham

#Life Is Short #Life Is #Live To The Fullest

Some people have more guts than brains.
-- John Grisham

#Courage #People #Brain

My mum was never too keen on TV, so we kids all went to the library and got books out. Right from the start, I loved the works of Mark Twain. Every time I read about Tom Sawyer, I'd go out and do something low-level naughty, just like him.
-- John Grisham

#Book #Kids #Naughty

I looked at her and tried to speak, but all I could think about was how shocked she'd be if I said what I was thinking.
-- John Grisham

#Thinking #Speak #Said

Death row is a nightmare to serial killers and ax murderers. For an innocent man, it's a life of mental torture that the human spirit is not equipped to survive.
-- John Grisham

#Men #Serial Killer #Killers

Critics should find meaningful work.
-- John Grisham

#Meaningful #Should #Critics

My decision to become a lawyer was irrevocably sealed when I realized my father hated the legal profession.
-- John Grisham

#Father #Decision #Lawyer

The company later went broke, and of course all blame was directed at the lawyers. Not once did I hear any talk that maybe a trace of mismanagement could in any way have contributed to the bankruptcy.
-- John Grisham

#Way #Lawyer #Blame

I don't feel stupid, just inadequate. After three years of studying the law, I'm very much aware of how little I know.
-- John Grisham

#Stupid #Years #Law

I'm being followed so much I'm causing traffic jams.
-- John Grisham

#Jam #Traffic #Traffic Jam

Prisons are fascinating places, especially when the inmates are educated white-collar types.
-- John Grisham

#White #Inmates #Prison

I always do book signings with the same blue pen. That way, if I add a personalised message to a book I've already signed, it'll be in the same colour as my signature.
-- John Grisham

#Book #Blue #Way

Once again, I was reminded that Tally was the prettiest girl I'd ever met, and when she smiled at me my mind went blank. Once you've seen a pretty girl naked, you feel a certain attachment to her.
-- John Grisham

#Girl #Attachment #Mind

I seriously doubt I would ever have written the first story had I not been a lawyer. I never dreamed of being a writer. I wrote only after witnessing a trial.
-- John Grisham

#Doubt #Stories #Trials

It's a game. We tax lawyers teach the rich how to play it so they can stay rich-and the IRS keeps changing the rules so we can keep getting rich teaching them.
-- John Grisham

#Teaching #Games #Play

Writing's still the most difficult job I've ever had - but it's worth it.
-- John Grisham

#Jobs #Writing #Difficult

I've sold too many books to get good reviews anymore. There's a lot of jealousy, because [reviewers] think they can write a good novel or a best-seller and get frustrated when they can't. I've learned to despise them.
-- John Grisham

#Book #Writing #Thinking

It's amazing how lies grow. You start with a small one that seems easy to cover, then you get boxed in and tell another one. Then another. People believe you at first, then they act upon your lies, and you catch yourself wishing you'd simply told the truth.
-- John Grisham

#Lying #Believe #People

Privileged people don't march and protest; their world is safe and clean and governed by laws designed to keep them happy.
-- John Grisham

#Law #People #World

I was tired of secrets, tired of seeing things I was not supposed to see. And so I just cried.
-- John Grisham

#Tired #Secret

The first thing my family did when we moved was join the local church. The second was to go to the library and get library cards.
-- John Grisham

#Church #Library #Cards

In little pockets of conversation, old men were telling stories of ancient floods. Women were talking of about how much rain there'd been in other towns -- Paragould, Lepanto, and Manila.
-- John Grisham

#Rain #Men #Talking

We learned after the first semester in law school that it's best never to discuss exams. If notes are compared afterwards, you become painfully aware of things you missed.
-- John Grisham

#School #Law #Firsts

Writing was not a childhood dream of mine. I do not recall longing to write as a student. I wasn't sure how to start.
-- John Grisham

#Dream #Writing #Childhood

I cannot write as well as some people; my talent is in coming up with good stories about lawyers.That is what I am good at.
-- John Grisham

#Writing #People #Stories

I'm a Christian, and those beliefs occasionally come out in the books.
-- John Grisham

#Christian #Book #Belief

I was a lawyer for 10 years, and several of my clients had the misfortune, through no fault of my own, of going to prison. I visited them occasionally.
-- John Grisham

#Years #Faults #Clients

I was a lawyer for 10 years - a short time, but it molded me into who I am.
-- John Grisham

#Who I Am #Years #Lawyer

I grew up in a very small, close-knit, Southern Baptist family, where everything was off-limits. So I couldn't wait to get to college and have some fun. And I did for the first two years. And I regret a lot of it, because my grades were in terrible shape.
-- John Grisham

#Fun #Regret #College

I give off rather mixed messages about the law. On the one hand, I can honestly say I don't miss working in a law office. On the other hand I do enjoy watching the law and while the profession may have its problems, I have sold zillions of books out of magnifying them.
-- John Grisham

#Book #Hands #Law

Every morning I wake at 6am or 6.30am, champing at the bit.
-- John Grisham

#Morning #Every Morning

Because I was single, there was a chance I was a homosexual. Because I went to Syracuse, wherever that was, then I was probably a Communist. Or worse, a Liberal. Because I was from Memphis, I was a subversive intent on embarrassing Ford County.
-- John Grisham

#Memphis #Chance #Communist

I struggle with racism every day
-- John Grisham

#Struggle #Racism

I've written 17 novels, and I've found out that fiction can't keep up with real life.
-- John Grisham

#Inspirational #Real #Fiction

I learned that lesson a long time ago. When you write popular fiction, you're going to get bashed by critics.
-- John Grisham

#Writing #Long #Fiction

And they drank heavily, partied with great enthusiasm, and relished the drug culture; they moved in and out and slept around, and this was okay because they defined their own morality. They were fighting for the Mexicans and the redwoods, dammit! They had to be good people!
-- John Grisham

#Fighting #People #Drug

I am currently reading, "The Broker" by John Grisham. it is alittle slow to start so I will have to let you know if it gets better
-- John Grisham

#Reading #Get Better #Brokers

All students enter law school with a certain amount of idealism and desire to serve the public, but after three years of brutal competition we care for nothing but the right job with the right firm where we can make partner in seven years and earn big bucks.
-- John Grisham

#Jobs #School #Years

There are few things in life worse than a long-winded lawyer.
-- John Grisham

#Long #Lawyer

How could homosexuals possibly srew up the sanctity of marriage any worse than heterosexuals?
-- John Grisham

#Sanctity #Homosexual

We cuss them because we're not good enough for them. We hate them because they wouldn't look at us, couldn't be bothered to give us an interview. I guess there's a Trent & Brent in every city, in every field. I didn't make it and I don't belong, so I'll just go through life hating them.
-- John Grisham

#Hate #Cities #Giving

I can't change overnight into a serious literary author. You can't compare apples to oranges. William Faulkner was a great literary genius. I am not.
-- John Grisham

#Apples #Orange #Serious

The mother of a trophy wife is not automatically a trophy mother-in-law.
-- John Grisham

#Mother #Law #Wife

I'm not in favor of the death penalty. But I'm in favor of locking these people away in maximum security units where they can never get out. They can never escape. They can never be paroled. Lock the bad ones away. But you gotta rethink everybody else.
-- John Grisham

#People #Locks #Favors

She was pondering the option of law school, the great American baby-sitter for directionless postgrads.
-- John Grisham

#Baby #School #Law

You live your life today, Not tommorow, and certainly not yesterday.
-- John Grisham

#Yesterday #Live Your Life #Today

Four rehabs meant a fifth was somewhere down the road.
-- John Grisham

#Four #Rehab #Fifth

In one long glorious acknowledgment of failure, he laid himself bare before God.
-- John Grisham

#Long #Glorious

The coffee arrives, and we backslide into what lawyers do best---talking about other lawyers.
-- John Grisham

#Coffee #Talking #Lawyer

Still, something about writing made me spend large hours of my free time at my desk.
-- John Grisham

#Writing #Hours #Made

Keeping a guy in prison costs 50,000 bucks a year. Executing one costs a couple million.
-- John Grisham

#Couple #Years #Guy

I have learned not to read reviews. Period. And I hate reviewers. All of them, or at least all but two or three. Life is much simpler ignoring reviews and the nasty people who write them. Critics should find meaningful work.
-- John Grisham

#Meaningful #Hate #Writing

You burn a man's pickup, and he's ready for war.
-- John Grisham

#War #Men #Ready

Prisons are hate factories, Pastor, and society wants more and more of them.
-- John Grisham

#Hate #Want #Prison

judge not that ye be not judged
-- John Grisham

#Bible #Judging #Judged

Please give me fifty more years of work and fun, then an instant death when I'm sleeping.
-- John Grisham

#Fun #Sleep #Years

He's my client, and he's counting on me. I'll take him, warts and all.
-- John Grisham

#Clients #Counting #Warts

I didn't dare think of the future; the past was still happening.
-- John Grisham

#Past #Thinking #Dare

More than 100 people have been sent to death row who were later exonerated because they weren't guilty or fairly tried. Most criminal defendants do not get adequate representation because there are not enough public defenders to represent them. There is a lot that is wrong.
-- John Grisham

#People #Criminals #Adequate

It's as if we spend our entire lives avoiding Jell-O but it is always there at the end, waiting.
-- John Grisham

#Waiting #Ends #Avoiding

I was a lawyer for 10 years - a short time, but it molded me into who I am. My clients were little people fighting big corporations, so it was a natural thing to not only represent the little guy but also to pull for him - it's the American way.
-- John Grisham

#Fighting #Who I Am #Years

I don't start a novel until I have lived with the story for awhile to the point of actually writing an outline and after a number of books I've learned that the more time I spend on the outline the easier the book is to write. And if I cheat on the outline I get in trouble with the book.
-- John Grisham

#Book #Writing #Numbers

I guess under the right circumstances, a man will do just about anything.
-- John Grisham

#Men #Circumstances

Mr. Buckley, let me explain it this way. And I'll do so very carefully & slowly so that even you will understand it. If I was the sheriff, I would not have arrested him. If I was on the grand jury, I would not have indicted him. If I was the judge, I would not try him. If I was the D.A., I would not prosecute him. If I was on the trial jury, I would vote to give him a key to the city, a plaque to hang on his wall, & I would send him home to his family. And, Mr. Buckley, if my daughter is ever raped, I hope I have the guts to do what he did.
-- John Grisham

#Daughter #Wall #Home

There's always such a rush to judgment. It makes a fair trial hard to get.
-- John Grisham

#Trials #Judgment

You need some coffee, don't you?" "Yes, I've only had a gallon.
-- John Grisham

#Coffee #Needs #Gallons

One thing you really have to watch as a writer is getting on a soapbox or pulpit about anything. You don't want to alienate readers.
-- John Grisham

#Watches #Soapbox #Want

My name became a brand, and I'd love to say that was the plan from the start. But the only plan was to keep writing books. And I've stuck to that ever since.
-- John Grisham

#Book #Writing #Names

Quite often I can be in a bookshop, standing beneath a great big picture of myself and paying for a book with a credit card clearly marked John Grisham, yet no one recognises me. I often say I'm a famous author in a country where no one reads.
-- John Grisham

#Country #Book #Cards

When you work at street level you never know who's going to walk through your door.
-- John Grisham

#Doors #Levels #Walks

Very few writers understand the complex history and maddening social order of the Mississippi Delta. For Steve Yarbrough, though, it's home turf. He is wickedly observant, funny, cynical, evocative, and he possesses a gift that cannot be taught: he can tell a story.
-- John Grisham

#Home #Order #Cynical

I don't want to force my politics on my readers.
-- John Grisham

#Want #Force #Reader

After I'd been a lawyer for about five or six years, I started playing around with fiction.
-- John Grisham

#Years #Fiction #Six

Ten years from now I plan to be sitting here, looking out over my land. I hope I'll be writing books, but if not, I'll be on my pond fishing with my kids. I feel like the luckiest guy I know.
-- John Grisham

#Book #Kids #Writing

And that's the mission of The Innocence Project in New York, is to exonerate people who have been wrongfully convicted, and also work from a policy angle with Congress and state legislatures to prevent future wrongful convictions.
-- John Grisham

#New York #People #Innocence

An outline is crucial. It saves so much time. When you write suspense, you have to know where you're going because you have to drop little hints along the way. With the outline, I always know where the story is going. So before I ever write, I prepare an outline of 40 or 50 pages.
-- John Grisham

#Writing #Suspense #Hints

Jesus preached more and taught more about helping the poor and the sick and the hungry than he did about heaven and hell. Shouldn't that tell us something?
-- John Grisham

#Jesus #Sick #Heaven

I don't usually eat breakfast. I prefer to be asleep during the hours that it is served.
-- John Grisham

#Breakfast #Hours

The worst letters come from retired high school English teachers. They will literally take a book and pick it to pieces and send me 14 pages of notes.
-- John Grisham

#Teacher #Book #School

I was on the verge of tears, so I turned and ran past the trailer and along the field road until I was safely out of their sight. Then I ducked into the cotton and waited for friendly voices. I sat on the hot ground, surrounded by stalks four feet tall, and I cried, something I really hated to do.
-- John Grisham

#Past #Voice #Feet

Ricky had taught me a few cuss words. I usually practiced them in the woods by the river, then prayed for forgiveness as soon as I was done.
-- John Grisham

#Rivers #Done #Woods

Poverty is a great equalizer
-- John Grisham

#Poverty