Top 200 John Grisham Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Reading is by far the most successful pursuit of happiness.”

— John Grisham

Featured in: Reading Quotes

2. “Live your life the way you want. You’ll figure it out.”

— John Grisham

3. “Don’t compromise yourself – you’re all you have.”

— John Grisham

4. “If you’re gonna be stupid you gotta be tough.”

— John Grisham

5. “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

Featured in: Quotes About Stories

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

— John Grisham

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

— John Grisham

8. “There’s always such a rush to judgment. It makes a fair trial hard to get.”

— John Grisham

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

— John Grisham

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

— John Grisham

Featured in: Fun Quotes

11. “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

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

— John Grisham

13. “Some people have more guts than brains.”

— John Grisham

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

— John Grisham

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

— John Grisham

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

— John Grisham

17. “I guess under the right circumstances, a man will do just about anything.”

— John Grisham

18. “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

19. “Still, something about writing made me spend large hours of my free time at my desk.”

— John Grisham

20. “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

Featured in: Firsts Quotes

21. “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

Featured in: Quotes About Childhood

22. “Poverty is a great equalizer.”

— John Grisham

23. “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

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

— John Grisham

25. “The good thing about writing fiction is that you can get back at people.”

— John Grisham

26. “The presumption of innocence is now the presumption of guilt. The burden of proof is a travesty because the proof is often lies. Guilt beyond a reasonable doubt means if he probably did it, then let’s get him off the streets.”

— John Grisham

27. “Billing was the lifeblood of the firm. Everything revolved around it.”

— John Grisham

28. “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

Featured in: Reading Quotes

29. “I was a lawyer for 10 years – a short time, but it molded me into who I am.”

— John Grisham

30. “Writing’s still the most difficult job I’ve ever had – but it’s worth it.”

— John Grisham

31. “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

32. “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

33. “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

Featured in: Fun Quotes

34. “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

35. “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

36. “I don’t usually eat breakfast. I prefer to be asleep during the hours that it is served.”

— John Grisham

37. “Plans – nothing ever goes as planned, and the survivors are the ones who can adapt on the fly.”

— John Grisham

38. “I struggle with racism every day.”

— John Grisham

39. “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

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

— John Grisham

41. “A riveting, exciting and thoroughly compelling tale of adventure.”

— John Grisham

42. “I’ve written 17 novels, and I’ve found out that fiction can’t keep up with real life.”

— John Grisham

43. “When you work at street level you never know who’s going to walk through your door.”

— John Grisham

44. “In the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus teaches the importance of forgiveness. He knows we’re human and our natural tendency is to seek revenge, to strike back, to condemn those who hurt us, but this is wrong. We’re supposed to forgive, always.”

— John Grisham

45. “Meanness does not inspire loyalty.”

— John Grisham

46. “After I’d been a lawyer for about five or six years, I started playing around with fiction.”

— John Grisham

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

— John Grisham

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

— John Grisham

49. “I learned that lesson a long time ago. When you write popular fiction, you’re going to get bashed by critics.”

— John Grisham

50. “It was the eyes, the cold black eyes with layers of black wrinkles around them. Great eyes. Unforgettable eyes. His hair was white and thin on top with thickets around the ears, and the whiteness contrasted sharply with the rest of his face. When he spoke, the eyes narrowed and the black pupils glowed fiercely. Sinister eyes. Knowing eyes.”

— John Grisham