247 Quotes by James McBride

The thing that I do is that when I fail, I just keep quiet about it. I just let it go. It's done. I just go to the next thing. I don't complain, I don't go to - I pick my battles very, very judiciously, and I just assume that there's good in the heart of everybody.

I'm not interested in food. It's just fuel.

I'd like to do something involving jazz. But books are how I earn my living, and I'd like to stay with the horse I rode in on.

First person narrative is a very effective tool but you have to know as a writer how to make it work.

Slavery was a web of relationships, and if people knew how thick the whole business was, they would not make fun of people like Harriet Tubman. They would understand how intelligent she was and how sharp.

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

Some things in this world just ain't meant to be, not in the times we want 'em to, and the heart has to hold it in this world as a remembrance, a promise for the world that's to come. There's a prize at the end of all of it, but still, that's a heavy load to bear.

I just read history books. I read nothing but history books. They have so much to give; I wish I'd majored in history in college.

I asked her if I was black or white. She replied "You are a human being. Educate yourself or you'll be a nobody!