There are only two interviews Oprah Winfrey failed to get, and one of them was with the author of To Kill A Mockingbird. The legendary broadcaster recalls meeting her match on a rainy day in New York
At the time I read To Kill A Mockingbird, I was living with my mother in Milwaukee. I would not have had any money to buy it, so I would undoubtedly have chosen it from the library. I was one of those kids who would go to the library every two weeks, withdraw five books, read the five books, and return them. It was a librarian who said, “If you like reading that kind of book, I think you will like reading this book.”
So I picked up To Kill A Mockingbird. I remember starting it and just devouring it, not being able to get enough of it, because I fell in love with Scout. I thought I was Scout. I always took on or wanted to take on the characteristics of whoever I was reading about, and so I wanted to be Scout and I wanted a father like Atticus Finch.
I wanted to have a relationship like Scout had with Atticus, so I could call him by his first name. I wanted a nickname like Scout’s. I was drawn to the book because of that, and it wasn’t until I saw the film that I came to realise the depth of the racial implications of the book.
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So I picked up To Kill A Mockingbird. I remember starting it and just devouring it, not being able to get enough of it, because I fell in love with Scout. I thought I was Scout. I always took on or wanted to take on the characteristics of whoever I was reading about, and so I wanted to be Scout and I wanted a father like Atticus Finch.
I wanted to have a relationship like Scout had with Atticus, so I could call him by his first name. I wanted a nickname like Scout’s. I was drawn to the book because of that, and it wasn’t until I saw the film that I came to realise the depth of the racial implications of the book.
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