Explore Quotes by James Mcbride

When you're interviewing someone, even your mother - you have to sort of deal with you have to get some objective space from yourself and the person but you also have to find what's the best way to get the information from that person.

Writing for me is cutting out the fat and getting to the meaning.

I'm proud of 'Miracle at St. Anna' and I loved it; there's no question in my mind it's as good as any movie that came out in 2007.

I used to walk through the Old Times Square fearing for my life. Now I wouldn't be caught dead there.

The James Brown story is not about James Brown. It's about who's getting paid, whose interest is involved, who can squeeze the estate and black history for more.

If you can whistle the melody, then the song will stick. But if you need a bunch of machines to make it sound good, you're probably not writing anything that's going to last a long time.

Every time I see something about the Wild West, I'm reminded that our version of history may not be what really happened.

I'm trying to get Americans to see that we're all pretty much the same. I believe it; I was taught God doesn't have a color. I want to better the planet a little bit.

My main problem with fiction is that once my characters get moving, you just have to follow them along and get out of the way of the story, but sometimes they pull me in too many directions, and I need to focus.

I split my time between a small town in New Jersey and New York City.

Writing teaches writing.

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.

I love the language of, you know, the old black country man with a blues guitar and... boots and the quick banter.

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.

You can't write just anything. Your story needs structure.

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.

The black church will accept anybody.

Newt Gingrich wrote a novel, and he's a short story. Bill Clinton wrote a biography, and he's a novel.

I wish all critics, no matter their color, were more sophisticated when it comes to the moral questions a film like 'St. Anna' is trying to raise.

I put headlights in Ford vans. I still drive a Ford.

The whole notion of owning a person is so ludicrous, there's plenty of room to make fun.