I asked her if I was black or white. She replied "You are a human being. Educate yourself or you'll be a… — James McBride Copy Share Image
Newt Gingrich wrote a novel, and he's a short story. Bill Clinton wrote a biography, and he's a novel. — James McBride Copy Share Image
The man was the finest preacher. He could make a frog stand up straight and get happy with Jesus. — James McBride Copy Share Image
“...for one thing you learns when you is a girl is that most women's hearts is full of secrets.” — James McBride Secrets Copy Share Image
The thing that I do is that when I fail, I just keep quiet about it. I just let it go. It's… — James McBride Copy Share Image
“God I am looking for the one thing I have never felt but once, and I would walk through heaven and earth… — James McBride Dreamer Copy Share Image
When you're interviewing someone, even your mother - you have to sort of deal with you have to get some objective space… — James McBride Best way Copy Share Image
“We all got to die," she said. "But dying as your true self is always better. God'll take you however you come… — James McBride Death Copy Share Image
I'm one of the few Black writers, or African American writers, who managed to work my way through the system so that… — James McBride African american Copy Share Image
“It occurred to me then that you is everything you are in this life at every moment. And that includes loving somebody.… — James McBride Every moment Copy Share Image
I think a lot of the history we've read up to this point, some of it is just off. It's written with… — James McBride Copy Share Image
“She wore a flowered blue dress of the type whores naturally favored, and that thing was so tight that when she moved,… — James McBride Beauty Copy Share Image
You're not a Black man. You're a human being in God's eyes. So when you sit down to talk to someone and… — James McBride Copy Share Image
“That was the Old Man’s favorite song. “Blow Ye Trumpet.” Them Negroes was far away from the doings on the plaza where… — James McBride Copy Share Image
The basic thing is to be humble, and pretend you're a bartender in the tavern of life. Don't get too comfortable and… — James McBride Bartender Copy Share Image
“back,” Daddy said. “It’ll work out.” He had no idea what to do about Helen. They spoke a completely different language. He… — James McBride Copy Share Image
Slavery was a web of relationships, and if people knew how thick the whole business was, they would not make fun of… — James McBride Fun Copy Share Image
There are two responses to really awful things. One is to lament and say, "Oh my God, oh lord." And the other… — James McBride Copy Share Image
“The greatest gift that anyone can give anyone is LIFE. And the greatest sin a person can do is to take away… — James McBride Gift Copy Share Image
It's the same old story. Nothing in this world happens unless white folks says it happens. And therein lies the problem of… — James McBride Copy Share Image
It was always so hot, and everyone was so polite, and everything was all surface but underneath it was like a bomb… — James McBride Bombs Copy Share Image
I felt like a Tinker toy kid building my own self out of one of those toy building sets; for as she… — James McBride Copy Share Image
...since I was a little boy, she had always wanted me to go. She was always sending me off on a bus… — James McBride Boys Copy Share Image
I'm trying to educate people about things that I believe are right, and some of the things that I believe are right… — James McBride Copy Share Image
I could have been, and may one day well be a high school English teacher, because I've been given so much I… — James McBride Copy Share Image
“It occurred to me then that you is everything you are in this life at every moment. And that includes loving somebody.… — James McBride Every moment Copy Share Image
