Explore Quotes by 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.

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.

My father died in 1957, just before I was born. My mother went to her Jewish aunt, who slammed the door in her face.

Caring is beyond race. Either people care about you, or they don't.

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.

There is a lot wrong with the church.

My mother tried her best to give us a sense of self-esteem.

I'm hot on the Jewish book club circuit. How many black authors do you know who can say that?

Anyone can write your own life story.

When I was younger, I was ambitious. Now I'm not ambitious anymore. I just want to be happy. Does that make sense?

I thank God I was a reporter before I became a writer.

I don't like living around too many fancy-pantsy folks. That ain't my thing. I'm not into phony people.

James Brown's life was really a metaphor for our inability to talk about matters like race and class in America.

The starting point of all great jazz has got to be format, a language that you can work within that, in some ways, is much tighter than the blues or even gospel. It's all working towards the same destination - the difference being that Miles Davis flew there, and I'm still taking the subway.

We're learning a tremendous amount of propaganda from television and the Internet.

Everybody knew James Brown. Every musician dreamed of being in his band.

I don't live for my work. My life is my life. That's more important, and I think that helps my work.

Historical novels are hard to do for the general public for commercial writers like myself.

If I grew up in a truly color-blind society, I would not be a black American.

We would not have been a successful family without my father and stepfather, who were working-class men with better dreams for their children. We just wore them out.

When my mother left home, her family sat shivah for her, more because my father was not Jewish than because he was black.