Top 200 John Grisham Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “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

52. “A lawyer had to be himself in the courtroom, and if he was afraid, so be it. The jurors were afraid too. Make friends with fear, Lucien always said, because it will not go away, and it will destroy you if left uncontrolled.”

— John Grisham

53. “There are few things I like better in life than getting lost in a good book.”

— John Grisham

54. “I don’t want to force my politics on my readers.”

— John Grisham

55. “Great trial lawyers aren’t born; they’re made. The great ones simply tell the jury a story...”

— John Grisham

56. “Privileged people don’t march and protest; their world is safe and clean and governed by laws designed to keep them happy.”

— John Grisham

57. “Too poor to paint and too proud to whitewash.”

— John Grisham

58. “I was tired of secrets, tired of seeing things I was not supposed to see. And so I just cried.”

— John Grisham

59. “Once again, I am thankful that alcohol is not my temptation.”

— John Grisham

60. “God help us, if ever in this great country we turn our heads while people who have not had fair trials are executed. That almost happened in this case.”

— John Grisham

61. “Murder must be punished, but murder can also be justified.”

— John Grisham

62. “My decision to become a lawyer was irrevocably sealed when I realized my father hated the legal profession.”

— John Grisham

63. “Once again, I was reminded that Tally was the prettiest girl I’d ever met, and when she smiled at me my mind went blank. Once you’ve seen a pretty girl naked, you feel a certain attachment to her.”

— John Grisham

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

— John Grisham

65. “In little pockets of conversation, old men were telling stories of ancient floods. Women were talking of about how much rain there’d been in other towns – Paragould, Lepanto, and Manila.”

— John Grisham

66. “And until we can see each other as equals, justice is never going to be even-handed. It will remain nothing more than a reflection of our own prejudices.”

— John Grisham

67. “Make friends with fear, Lucien always said, because it will not go away, and it will destroy you if left uncontrolled.”

— John Grisham

68. “He did smile at her, though, but she did not return the smile. Her teeth were somewhere in the house.”

— John Grisham

69. “I seriously doubt I would ever have written the first story had I not been a lawyer. I never dreamed of being a writer. I wrote only after witnessing a trial.”

— John Grisham

70. “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

71. “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.”

— John Grisham

72. “You count the years until you get a varsity jersey, then you’re a hero, an idol, a cocky bastard because in this town you can do no wrong. You win and win and you’re the king of your own little world, then poof, it’s gone. You play your last game and everybody cries. You can’t believe it’s over. Then another team comes right behind you and you’re forgotten.”

— John Grisham

73. “The human body was not meant for such abuse. After about six months they lost steam.”

— John Grisham

74. “I’m being followed so much I’m causing traffic jams.”

— John Grisham

75. “The first thing my family did when we moved was join the local church. The second was to go to the library and get library cards.”

— John Grisham

76. “You’re beautiful,” he said. “When was the last time I told you that you are beautiful?” “About two hours ago.” “Two hours! How thoughtless of me!” “Don’t let it happen again.” He.”

— John Grisham

77. “I’ve lost my love for money. It’s the curse of the devil.”

— John Grisham

78. “The sixth and last eulogy was from Roderick, Hugo and Verna’s oldest child. He wrote a three-page tribute to his father, and it was read by the reverend. Even Michael Geismar, a cold-blooded Presbyterian, finally succumbed to his emotions. The.”

— John Grisham

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

— John Grisham

80. “It’s a sad culture. People live in a frenzy. They work all the time to make money to buy things to impress other people. They’re measured by what they own.”

— John Grisham

81. “Appalachia was Appalachia, regardless of boundaries someone had set an eternity ago. A land of breathtaking beauty, of steep hills and rolling mountains.”

— John Grisham

82. “This is not a problem peculiar to Oklahoma, far from it. Wrongful convictions occur every month in every state in this country, and the reasons are all varied and all the same – bad police work, junk science, faulty eyewitness identifications, bad defense lawyers, lazy prosecutors, arrogant prosecutors.”

— John Grisham

83. “Some of our clients have not been saints, but no lawyer can dictate morals to his client.”

— John Grisham

84. “We were invincible because we were eighteen and stupid.”

— John Grisham

85. “Prisons are fascinating places, especially when the inmates are educated white-collar types.”

— John Grisham

86. “They say a woman marries a man with the belief she can change him, and she can’t. A man marries a woman with the belief that she won’t change, and she does.”

— John Grisham

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

— John Grisham

88. “I’m a Christian, and those beliefs occasionally come out in the books.”

— John Grisham

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

— John Grisham

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

— John Grisham

91. “Critics should find meaningful work.”

— John Grisham

92. “And it’s often the one you trust the most who’ll cut your throat for the right price.”

— John Grisham

93. “Ray Chapman was killed by a pitch in 1920. Mickey Cochrane never played again after taking one in the head. Tony Conigliaro was a certain Hall of Famer, then he got beaned in the eye. I.”

— John Grisham

94. “My mum was never too keen on TV, so we kids all went to the library and got books out. 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.”

— John Grisham

95. “Quite often I can be in a bookshop, standing beneath a great big picture of myself and paying for a book with a credit card clearly marked John Grisham, yet no one recognises me. I often say I’m a famous author in a country where no one reads.”

— John Grisham

96. “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.”

— John Grisham

97. “As Mike Roberts watched Tommy enter the building, he could not imagine that the boy was taking his last steps in the free world. The rest of his life would be behind prison walls.”

— John Grisham

98. “Perhaps in another era, a trial was an exercise in the presentation of facts, the search for truth, and the finding of justice. Now a trial is a contest in which one side will win and the other side will lose. Each side expects the other to bend the rules or to cheat, so neither side plays fair. The truth is lost in the melee.”

— John Grisham

99. “The prosecution was forced into the bizarre position of admitting Ward and Fontenot were lying while asking the jurors to believe them.”

— John Grisham

100. “Michael Harvey should be read by all.”

— John Grisham