James McBride Quotes
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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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Until you expose the cancer, you can't fix it.
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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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I don't like a bunch of writers sitting around, puffing smoke, they like this book, he wrote this - tell me a dirty joke, you know. It's just not my style, I've never been that kind of person.
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If you don't have humor, you're not going to make it. You're going to be one of those people who walks around with your head about to explode.
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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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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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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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I don't want to read a book that's depressing.
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A typewriter forces you to keep going, to march forward.
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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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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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A daily dose of Nietzsche goes a long way.
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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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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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Spike Lee listens a lot. He's one of the quietest creative people I've ever met.
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The whole notion of owning a person is so ludicrous, there's plenty of room to make fun.
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Writing teaches writing.