If you want the attribute to be shared by all instances of the class, use a class attribute:
class A(object):
foo = None
This causes ('foo',None) to be a (key,value) pair in A.__dict__.
If you want the attribute to be customizable on a per-instance basis, use an instance attribute:
class A(object):
def __init__(self):
self.foo = None
This causes ('foo',None) to be a (key,value) pair in a.__dict__ where a=A() is an instance of A.