Quotes from John Grisham

There are always issues on the front page that need to be explored.

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.

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. I never got in serious trouble, except for my grades.

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

I'm not itching to sue Amazon or Wal-Mart... they sell a lot of books. But the future is very uncertain with books.

I hate prologues because they're kind of gimmicks to suck you in.

I used to walk in a bookstore and see all these books on the walls. And I would say, 'Who wants to hear from me? What do I have to add to all of this?'

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

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

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.

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

Reading is by far the most successful pursuit of happiness.

Dear Mrs. Black: On seven prior occasions this company has denied your claim in writing. We now deny it for the eighth and final time. You must be stupid, stupid stupid, stupid!

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

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

Your brain is cooked when you write hard for three or four hours.

That's the best way to practice law, is writing about it and not having to be in the courtroom!

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.

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

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

My clients were always poor folks, working folks, people who were in trouble and couldn't afford to pay a whole lot. I found it very difficult to say no to somebody who needed help, so most of my work turned out to be pro bono. It didn't start out that way, but it turned out that way because I never got paid.

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.

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.

I start every morning at 7 or 7:30 in the same place - my little office where it's dark and cozy - with a cup of the same really strong black coffee. It's my little cocoon. There's no phone or fax or Internet. And no music.