James McBride Quotes
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Most of my work is done when everyone else is asleep.
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Fiction makes your dreams come true, and, as a writer, fiction allows you to delve into the area of miracles.
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Anyone can write your own life story.
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If you meet your heroes, you're always going to be disappointed. Frederick Douglass was a great man, but would I want my daughter to marry him? Probably not. That doesn't mean that I don't think he's a great man.
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You have to be able to toss the thing out. You can't fall in love with your characters, and you have to know when to fight - and when to quit.
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I don't want to read a book that's depressing.
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It's the same old story. Nothing in this world happens unless white folks says it happens. And therein lies the problem of being a professional black storyteller - writer, musician, filmmaker.
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A daily dose of Nietzsche goes a long way.
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When you study history in American schools, very rarely is the name John Brown mentioned. We know who Kanye West is or Twyla Tharp or Shania Twain.
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I think only now am I at the age where I've forgiven the past enough to say, 'You know what? Slavery was there. Let's talk about it in ways that will help us face tomorrow.
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A typewriter forces you to keep going, to march forward.
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I write stories that are already in the air, and I think it's important to have the correct listening device to tune in to that frequency.
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My goal is to be able to fill out one of those forms that asks 'Who are you?' and be able to just put 'Human being,' you know?
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Spike Lee listens a lot. He's one of the quietest creative people I've ever met.
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When my mother left home, her family sat shivah for her, more because my father was not Jewish than because he was black.
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I think what makes his story unique from others is there is not really one piece of American pop music you hear today that does not have some James Brown in it.
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Writing teaches writing.
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The whole notion of owning a person is so ludicrous, there's plenty of room to make fun.