James McBride Quotes
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John Brown was the abolitionist to end all abolitionists. People thought he was crazy. He was like John Coltrane playing free jazz, exhausting all possibilities in his approach to harmony and improvisation.
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My mother tried her best to give us a sense of self-esteem.
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As far as making a living, if plumbing earned more, I'd probably do it. At least you can leave the job at home once the tools are put away. A writer works in his mind 24/7.
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I understand it's great to read a great book, but it's better to live your life. It just helps me. It's uncomfortable at times, but you have to live outside the circle.
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When we're talking about slavery... we're really talking about the web of relationships that exists between whites and blacks from 1619 to 1865 to now.
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I like stories where normal people are in abnormal situations, and that's what appeals to me about history.
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People call him a terrorist, but you can use language to do many things and say many things about people, but John Brown was a hero.
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I can't be a creative person if I'm a celebrity.
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My father died in 1957, just before I was born. My mother went to her Jewish aunt, who slammed the door in her face.
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When I was younger, I was ambitious. Now I'm not ambitious anymore. I just want to be happy. Does that make sense?
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Newt Gingrich wrote a novel, and he's a short story. Bill Clinton wrote a biography, and he's a novel.
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You make your own luck by working hard, you know?
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Writing for me is cutting out the fat and getting to the meaning.
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When I was coming up, a lot of serious jazz players couldn't stand funk.
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Every time I see something about the Wild West, I'm reminded that our version of history may not be what really happened.
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Don't get me started on Americans and war. One of the things I learnt over in Italy is how they mythologised the war so that it's all good old gung-ho guys from Omaha and ignored everyone else's role.
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James Brown's music still sounds as fresh and as good and as new as it did when he first created it.
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I hate to sound blase about it, but literary status is not important to me. Being happy is important to me.
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My family is my career.
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James Brown was the Monday-to-Friday guy. He was the hardest man in show business. He was like your dad and your uncle: He showed up, and he hit hard.
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I just don't see the point in sitting around hollering the blues over things you have no control over. It's all in God's hands.
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John Brown was clearly flawed in real life. He did some terrible things, but he did some things none of us would have had the heart to do. His moral leanings were unquestionably admirable.
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I love the language of, you know, the old black country man with a blues guitar and... boots and the quick banter.
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Be kind to the living.