Joel Chandler Harris Quotes & Sayings

When you've got a thing to say,
Say it! Don't take half a day.
When your tale's got little in it
Crowd the whole thing in a minute!
Life is short
a fleeting vapor
Don't you fill the whole blamed paper
With a tale which, at a pinch,
Could be cornered in an inch!
Boil her down until she simmers,
Polish her until she glimmers. — Joel Chandler Harris

Please don't throw me in dat briar patch! — Joel Chandler Harris

Watch out when you're getting all you want. Fattening hogs ain't in luck. — Joel Chandler Harris

Write about what you know and care deeply about. When one puts one's self on paper - that is what is called good writing. — Joel Chandler Harris

Once upon a time a Georgian printed a couple of books that attracted notice, but immediately it turned out that he was little more than an amanuensis for the local blacks
that his works were really the products, not of white Georgia, but of black Georgia. Writing afterward as a white man, he swiftly subsided into the fifth rank. — Joel Chandler Harris

People no longer write letters. Lacking the leisure, and, for the most part, the ability, they dictate dispatches, and scribble messages. When you are in the humor, you should take a peep at some of the letters written by people who lived long ago. — Joel Chandler Harris

Jay-bird don't rob his own nes'. — Joel Chandler Harris

I don't keer w'at you do wid me, Brer Fox,' sezee, 'so you don't fling me in dat brier-patch. Roas' me, Brer Fox' sezee, 'but don't fling me in dat brier-patch,' sezee. — Joel Chandler Harris

Hongry rooster don't cackle w'en he fine a wum. — Joel Chandler Harris

I am in the prime of my senility. — Joel Chandler Harris

Lazy fokes's stummucks don't git tired. — Joel Chandler Harris

When folks git ole en strucken wid de palsy, dey mus' speck ter be laff'd at. — Joel Chandler Harris