John Grisham > Quotes

“Don't compromise yourself - you're all you have.”
― John Grisham, The Rainmaker

“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

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

“Some people have more guts than brains.”
― John Grisham, The Rainmaker

“If you're gonna be stupid you gotta be tough.”
― John Grisham, The Testament

“I'm alone and outgunned, scared and inexperienced, but I'm right.”
― John Grisham, The Rainmaker

“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, The Testament

“I didn't dare think of the future; the past was still happening.”
― John Grisham, The Street Lawyer

“Critics should find meaningful work.”
― John Grisham

“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, The Rainmaker

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

“Life is short..Live to the fullest..”
― John Grisham, The Runaway Jury

“A battered wife is a married woman until she gets a divorce. Or until she kills the bastard.”
― John Grisham, The Rainmaker

“How could homosexuals possibly srew up the sanctity of marriage any worse than heterosexuals?”
― John Grisham, The Appeal

“When witnesses concoct lies, they often miss the obvious.”
― John Grisham, The Testament

“I was tired of secrets, tired of seeing things I was not supposed to see. And so I just cried.”
― John Grisham, A Painted House

“In one long glorious acknowledgment of failure, he laid himself bare before God.”
― John Grisham, The Testament

“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, The Client

“He's a two-faced, cutthroat, dirt-dumb, chicken shit, slimy, little bastard with a bright future in politics.”
― John Grisham, The Confession

“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, A Painted House

“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.”
― John Grisham, A Time to Kill

“You need some coffee, don't you?"
"Yes, I've only had a gallon.”
― John Grisham, The Confession

“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, The Confession

“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, The Rainmaker

“Privileged people don't march and protest; their world is safe and clean and governed by laws designed to keep them happy.”
― John Grisham, The Street Lawyer

“With murder, the victim is gone, and not forced to deal with what happened to her. The family must deal with it, but not the victim. But rape is much worse. The victim has a lifetime of coping, trying to understand, of asking questions, and the worst part, of knowing the rapist is still alive and may someday escape or be released. Every hour of every day, the victim thinks of the rape and asks herself a thousand questions. She relives it, step by step, minute by minute, and it hurts just as bad.
Perhaps the most horrible crime of all is the violent rape of a child. A woman who is raped has a pretty good idea why it happened. Some animal was filled with hatred, anger and violence. But a child? A ten-year-old child? Suppose you're a parent. Imagine yourself trying to explain to your child why she was raped. Imagine yourself trying to explain why she cannot bear children.”
― John Grisham, A Time to Kill

“You advised him not to get a lawyer, giving as one of your reasons the opinion that lawyers are a pain in the ass. Gentlemen, the pain is here.
-Reggie Love”
― John Grisham, The Client

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

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

“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, The Brethren