Words matter. These are the best John Grisham Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
There are so many colorful characters in Florida. There’s a lot of money, development – not all of it good – and corruption.
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.
We are extremely private, and we really got sort of ambushed by the notoriety.
I spend a lot of time outlining before I write the first word.
There are three types of words: words we all know, words we should know, and words nobody knows. Don’t use the third category.
When you work at street level you never know who’s going to walk through your door.
Prisons are fascinating places, especially when the inmates are educated white-collar types.
Every morning I wake at 6am or 6.30am, champing at the bit.
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.
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.
I’ve had nine of my books adapted to film, and almost all were enjoyable. I’ve been very lucky with Hollywood, and look forward to more movies being adapted. But I don’t get involved in that process. I know nothing about making movies and I stay away from it and hope for the best.
It’s hard to read good fiction when I am writing, because if it is really good I catch myself sort of inadvertently imitating a great writer.
I had never written anything. And I had never studied writing. So my motives were pure: I had a great story… a courtroom drama that I sort of fictionalized, and that became ‘A Time to Kill.’
We’ve sent 130 men to death row to be executed in this country, at least 130 that we know of, who have later have been exonerated because they were either innocent, or they were not fairly tried. That’s 130 people that we’ve locked down on death row. And they’ve spent years there.
I wrote a lot of ‘A Time to Kill’ at the State Capitol in Jackson, Miss., hiding in little committee rooms, killing time waiting for legislation to come to the floor.
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.
There’s always such a rush to judgment. It makes a fair trial hard to get.
Wrongful convictions happen every week in every state in this country. And they happen for all the same reasons. Sloppy police work. Eyewitness identification is the most – is the worst type almost. Because it’s wrong about half the time. Think about that.
I’m not good at raising money. I don’t like to raise money. It’s been my experience that when I ask someone for money, it’s not long before they return the favor.
The Deep South has the friendliest people in the world. They will do anything for you. They also want to know what’s going on and won’t hesitate to ask questions.
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.
That’s the best way to practice law, is writing about it and not having to be in the courtroom!
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.
I earned my first steady paycheck watering rose bushes at a nursery for a dollar an hour.
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.
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.
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.
I’ve tried writing with music on, but I find it distracting.
We have the crime of the century every six months. So for people like me who enjoy, you know, taking these stories and writing about them, the material is endless.
Writing’s still the most difficult job I’ve ever had – but it’s worth it.
