John Grisham

“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.”

“What would his friends think? The Honorable Hatlee Beech, federal judge, writing prose like a faggot, extorting money out of innocent people.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“In the bottom right-hand corner was a decent-sized color photo of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Trudeau posing with their new acquisition. Brianna, ever photogenic, as she damned well be, emanated glamour. Carl looked rich, thin, and young, he thought, and Imelda was as baffling in print as she was in person. Was she really a work of art? Or was she just a hodgepodge of bronze and cement thrown together by some confused soul working hard to appear tortured?”

“I didn't dare think of the future; the past was still happening.”

“You count the days and watch the years go by. You tell yourself, and you believe it, that you'd rather just die. You'd rather stare death boldly in the face and say you're ready because whatever is waiting on the other side has to be better than growing old in a six-by-ten cage with no one to talk to. You consider yourself half-dead at best. Please take the other half.You've watched dozens leave and not return, and you accept the fact that one day they'll come for you. You're nothing but a rat in their lab, a disposable body to be used as proof that their experiment is working. An eye for an eye, each killing must be avenged. You kill enough and you're convinced that killing is good.You count the days, and then there are none left. You ask yourself on your last morning if you are really ready. You search for courage, but the bravery is fading. When it's over, no one really wants to die.”

“You burn a man's pickup, and he's ready for war.”

“Prisons are hate factories, Pastor, and society wants more and more of them.”

“You live your life today,Not tomorrow,and certainly not yesterday.”

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

“judge not that ye be not judged”

“Mr. Buckley, let me explain it this way. And I'll do so very carefully and 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, and 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.”

“How could homosexuals possibly srew up the sanctity of marriage any worse than heterosexuals?”

“When witnesses concoct lies, they often miss the obvious.”

“If you're gonna be stupid you gotta be tough.”

“Four rehabs meant a fifth was somewhere down the road.”

“In one long glorious acknowledgment of failure, he laid himself bare before God.”

“It wouldn't pay to get fresh with a missionary.”

“There are few things in life worse than a long-winded lawyer.”

“I'm alone and outgunned, scared and inexperienced, but I'm right.”

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

“It takes just one, he says over and over. You hear that all the time in this business. One big case, and you can retire. That's one reason lawyers do so many sleazy things, like full-color ads in the yellow pages, and billboards, and placards on city buses, and telephone solicitation. You hold your nose, ignore the stench of what you're doing, ignore the snubs and snobbery of big-firm lawyers, because it takes only one.”

“Some people have more guts than brains.”

“A battered wife is a married woman until she gets a divorce. Or until she kills the bastard.”

“He's my client, and he's counting on me. I'll take him, warts and all.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“The mother of a trophy wife is not automatically a trophy mother-in-law.”

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

“Life is short..Live to the fullest..”

“Sounds awful.""No, it's wonderful. And it's just for one year. Let's take a break. Blair's not here. she'll be back next year and we can jump back into the Christmas chaos, if that's what you want. Come on, Nora, please. We skip Christmas, save the money, and go splash in the Caribbean for ten days.""How much will it cost?""Three thousand bucks.""So we save money?""Absolutely.""When do we leave?""High noon, Christmas Day."They stared at each other for a long time.”

“A sharp bolt of hunger hit Luther hard. His knees almost buckled, his poker face almost grimaced. For two weeks now his sense of smell had been much keener, no doubt a side effect of a strict diet. Maybe he got a whiff of Mabel's finest, he wasn't sure, but a craving came over him. Suddenly, he had to have something to eat. Suddenly, he wanted to snatch the bag from Kendall, rip open a package, and start gnawing on a fruitcake.”

“The president had shifted to the 'we' mode now, something he invariably did when a potentially unpopular decision was at hand. For the easy ones, it was always 'I.' When he needed a crutch, and especially when he would need someone to blame, he opened up the decisionmaking process and included Critz.”

“The Senator did not know who owned the jet, nor had he ever met Mr. Trudeau, which in most cultures would seem odd since Rudd had taken so much money from the man. But in Washington, money arrives through a myriad of strange and nebulous conduits. Often those taking it have only a vague idea of where it's coming from; often they have no clue. In most democracies, the transference of so much cash would be considered outright corruption, but in Washington the corruption has been legalized. Senator Rudd didn't know and didn't care that he was owned by other people.”

“Don't compromise yourself - you're all you have.”

“Critics should find meaningful work.”

“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”

“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!”