-
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.
James McBride -
People process pain differently. My family, we were pretty humorous about things that went on.
James McBride
-
Most of my work is done when everyone else is asleep.
James McBride -
A daily dose of Nietzsche goes a long way.
James McBride -
A typewriter forces you to keep going, to march forward.
James McBride -
When you tell them you're a writer, they say, 'What have you written?' And then you've got to tell them what you've done. I don't ask a plumber what he does. Then I have to explain what I've done, and I haven't really, you know. I've just told some stories.
James McBride -
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.
James McBride -
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.
James McBride
-
I type most of my books for the first chapter or two - I use a manual typewriter for the first 50 pages or so - and then I move to the computer. It helps me keep the work lean so I don't end up spending 10 pages describing a leaf.
James McBride -
I don't want to read a book that's depressing.
James McBride -
Spike Lee listens a lot. He's one of the quietest creative people I've ever met.
James McBride -
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.
James McBride -
Writing teaches writing.
James McBride -
When my mother left home, her family sat shivah for her, more because my father was not Jewish than because he was black.
James McBride
-
Until you expose the cancer, you can't fix it.
James McBride -
The whole notion of owning a person is so ludicrous, there's plenty of room to make fun.
James McBride -
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.
James McBride -
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?
James McBride