From LCD to LCD, you may/will find difference. There's at least 2 different type of LCD: Graphic and Alphanumeric. The alphanumeric tend to use a really popular controller type: Hitachi 44780. For this one you'll find tons and tons of code example. Should you decide to use a C, Basic compiler, most will have a built-in command to drive it directly.
For graphic type... there seems to have some popular model, and still you can find a lot of information on this forum and on the web.
For both type, you want to know the part #, from there you should be able to find some datasheet.
most PIC16 & PIC18 would work, if you need to do something more sophisticated such as driving a QVGA lcd, then you want to use the PIC24 or DsPic familly... PIC32 if you really want to be overkill and never miss "power"
I usually order from Digikey, they're really fast. Mouser is also good place. Their pricing is also really fine, sometimes better than Digikey but, depending where you live, their shipping rate could be tad higher than Digikey. You want to compare your order on both places
Microchip offer some free samples, you may want to check this out.
Let's see what the other will suggest.
HTH