Top 200 John Grisham Quotes (2024 Update)
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151. “Like so many, this trial is not about the truth; it’s about winning.”

— John Grisham

152. “But such a cheap shot from a sibling can never be left alone.”

— John Grisham

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

— John Grisham

154. “We like to say that skin color doesn’t matter, but that’s not always true. We often use it to open doors.”

— John Grisham

155. “A hundred years earlier, in Hopt v. Utah, the Supreme Court ruled that a confession is not admissible if it is obtained by operating on the hopes or fears of the accused, and in doing so deprives him of the freedom of will or self-control necessary to make a voluntary statement. In 1897, the Court, in Bram v. United States, said that a statement must be free and voluntary, not extracted by any sorts of threats or violence or promises, however slight. A.”

— John Grisham

156. “He had blown the trumpet for so long that no one heard it anymore.”

— John Grisham

157. “He tried to smile at President Morgan, but he wanted to say something like: You are without a doubt the most limited politician I have ever encountered. Only in America could a moron like you make it to the top.”

— John Grisham

158. “Ten years from now I plan to be sitting here, looking out over my land. I hope I’ll be writing books, but if not, I’ll be on my pond fishing with my kids. I feel like the luckiest guy I know.”

— John Grisham

159. “One good thing about jail is that it allows you to think a lot.”

— John Grisham

160. “You spend more on fancy coffee than I do on meals. Why can’t you help the poor, the sick, the homeless?”

— John Grisham

161. “They found Seth Hubbard in the general area where he had promised to be, though not exactly in the condition expected. He was at the end of a rope, six feet off the ground and twisting slightly in the wind.”

— John Grisham

162. “Mrs. Vanlandingham from across the street heard the commotion and came running, still holding a dish towel. She arrived just as the sheriff, Nix Gridley, wheeled into the parking lot and slid in the gravel.”

— John Grisham

163. “Mine was the only white face in the crowded restaurant, but I was coming to terms with my whiteness. No one had tried to murder me yet. No one seemed to care.”

— John Grisham

164. “I’m concerned. He witnessed something awful, and he might be in shock.”

— John Grisham

165. “The bloodstain expert who testified against Quincy was a former Denver homicide detective named Paul Norwood. After working crime scenes for a few years, he had decided to.”

— John Grisham

166. “Percy had never owned a ball or a glove or a bat, had never played catch with his dad, had never dreamed of beating the Yankee. In fact he’d probably never dreamed of leaving the cotton patch. That thought was almost overwhelming.”

— John Grisham

167. “But you worship money, Nate. You’re part of a culture where everything is measured by money. It’s a religion.”

— John Grisham

168. “The only way to improve Noose’s favorite courtroom was to burn it.”

— John Grisham

169. “It takes just one, he says over and over. You hear that all the time in this business. One big case, and you can retire. That’s one reason lawyers do so many sleazy things, like full-color ads in the yellow pages, and billboards, and placards on city buses, and telephone solicitation. You hold your nose, ignore the stench of what you’re doing, ignore the snubs and snobbery of big-firm lawyers, because it takes only one.”

— John Grisham

170. “Nor did she like society’s way of presuming she was unhappy because she had not found the right guy.”

— John Grisham

171. “Any lawyer worth his salt knew the first offer had to be rejected.”

— John Grisham

172. “I’m in shock now. I’m not believing this, Mitch. This is like a bad dream, only much worse.” “And this is only the beginning.”

— John Grisham

173. “Such is the lunacy and unfairness of the system. Huver’s witnesses, the ones testifying on behalf of the State, are cloaked with legitimacy, as if they’ve been sanctified by the authorities. Cops, experts, even snitches who’ve been washed and cleansed and spruced up in nice clothes, all take the stand and tell lies in a coordinated effort to have my client executed. But the witnesses who know the truth, and are telling it, are discounted immediately and made to look like fools.”

— John Grisham

174. “People were classified, and often judged, by their denomination. And they were certainly condemned if they didn’t claim one.”

— John Grisham

175. “This is a game for me, and you have to admit I play it rather well.”

— John Grisham

176. “Reed will pull a Trump, file for bankruptcy and hide behind the courts for protection.”

— John Grisham

177. “You’re not ready. You’re not ready, because you’re not angry, Baxter. You must reach a point where you’re angry at your old self, your old life, your addictions. You have to hate the way you were, and when this hatred and anger consumes you, then you’ll have the determination not to go back there.”

— John Grisham

178. “About a month later, Riggins changed his mind. In an interview with the police, he said he was incorrect about Ron Williamson, that in fact the man he heard doing the confessing was Glen Gore.”

— John Grisham

179. “I’ve never understood people who grind through a book they don’t really like, determined to finish it for some unknown reason.”

— John Grisham

180. “Men, we don’t deserve respect. Yet. Respect is out there on the floor, just waiting for us to go get it.”

— John Grisham

181. “She was a good swimmer but we never used life jackets.” “It wouldn’t matter in that storm.”

— John Grisham

182. “They filed in, dressed for the day in short-sleeve shirts and cotton dresses. As they took their seats, a bailiff handed each a funeral fan – a decorative piece of cardboard glued to a stick – as if flapping it back and forth in front of their noses would bring relief from the stifling heat. Many of the spectators were already waving them.”

— John Grisham

183. “He prayed long and hard for justice and healing, but was a bit light on mercy.”

— John Grisham

184. “It had been tested extensively in clinical trials in third-world countries;.”

— John Grisham

185. “She was the only girl he had ever loved. It ended abruptly when she ditched him for a football player. He carried the wounds for six years until he caught her and killed her. Only then had his pain suddenly vanished, his broken heart was healed. The score was even.”

— John Grisham

186. “You know what they say – the reason divorce is so expensive is because it’s worth it.”

— John Grisham

187. “As I told you before, it’s fairly easy to convict an innocent man and virtually impossible to exonerate one.”

— John Grisham

188. “Do we really want fair trials? No, we do not. We want justice, and quickly. And justice is whatever we deem it to be on a case-by-case basis.”

— John Grisham

189. “You’re thinking somebody came over here, in the middle of a Category 4 hurricane, caught Nelson in the den, whacked him in the head, dragged his body outside, tried to clean up the blood, and then ran off? Seriously?”

— John Grisham

190. “And every defendant, regardless of how despicable the person or his crime, is entitled to a lawyer. Most laymen don’t understand this and don’t care. I don’t care either. This is my job.”

— John Grisham

191. “He was still wet with sweat and the coffee did little to cool things, but he needed it because it was an old friend and starting the day without it was unthinkable.”

— John Grisham

192. “Jailhouse snitches testify every day in this country. Other civilized countries prohibit them, but not here.”

— John Grisham

193. “There are times, many times, when I despise judges, especially blind ones and old ones.”

— John Grisham

194. “Pointing the finger at Ross Bannick was a terrifying act, not because she was afraid of being wrong, but because she feared the man himself.”

— John Grisham

195. “The truth was that, at the age of thirty-six, Lacy was content to live alone, to sleep in the center of the bed, to clean up only after herself, to make and spend her own money, to come and go as she pleased, to pursue her career without worrying about his, to plan her evenings with input from no one else, to cook or not to cook, and to have sole possession of the remote control.”

— John Grisham

196. “The fear of getting caught was not driven by the fear of paying the price. Rather, it was the fear of having to stop.”

— John Grisham

197. “Since we can all agree that it’s wrong to kill, why do we allow the State to kill?”

— John Grisham

198. “The system reflects society. It’s not always fair, but it’s as fair as the system in New York, or Massachusetts, or California. It’s as fair as biased, emotional humans can make it.”

— John Grisham

199. “Humans are mammals and their red blood cells are similar in that they do not have nuclei. Reptiles and birds have nucleated red blood cells, we do.”

— John Grisham

200. “What a family,” he said softly.”

— John Grisham