James McBride

“skinny as horsehair in a glass of milk”

— James McBride

My family is my career.

— James McBride

So sweet and precious is family life.

— James McBride

Be kind to the living.

— James McBride

The black church will accept anybody.

— James McBride

Educate yourself or you'll be a nobody!

— James McBride

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

— James McBride

God gived you the seed. But the watering and caring of that seed is up to you.

— James McBride

“I wouldn't throw her outta bed for eating crackers. She was all class.”

— James McBride

Family is the last and greatest discovery. It is our last miracle.

— James McBride

“If I ever see you again, I’ll send your ass hooting and hollering out my damn door.”

— James McBride

The question of religion in black America is something filmmakers don't want to touch.

— James McBride

Put yourself in God’s hands and you can’t go wrong.

— James McBride

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

— James McBride

“See, a marriege needs love. And God. And a little money. That's all.”

— James McBride

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

— James McBride

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

— James McBride

“The enemy was irony and truth and hypocrisy, that was the real enemy. That was the enemy that was killing him.”

— James McBride

But what difference does it make? ... When you're mixed, you see how absurd this business of race is.

— James McBride

My black friends never asked me how much money I made, or what school my children went to, or anything like that.…

— James McBride

“Whatever he believed, he believed. It didn’t matter to him whether it was really true or not. He just changed the truth…

— James McBride

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

— James McBride

“here he dug in his pockets and produced a thimble, a root, two empty tin cans, three Indian arrowheads, an apple peeler,…

— James McBride

Some things in this world just ain't meant to be, not in the times we want 'em to, and the heart has…

— James McBride

“Chase looked 'round and seen Frederick's grave where we'd buried him. "Who's that?" "Don't know. We been hiding in this thicket while…

— James McBride

But at the end of the day, there are some questions that have no answers, and then one answer that has no…

— James McBride

“Wonderful," he said. "Tell me. Which books in the Bible do you favor?" "Oh, I favors 'em all," Pa said. "But I…

— James McBride

My parents were nonmaterialistic. They believed that money without knowledge was worthless, that education tempered with religion was the way to climb…

— James McBride

If you're going to cheat and take people's history and you're not writing the Bible, you ain't really so great. But if…

— James McBride

People don't realize you're blowing over changes, time changes, harmony, different keys. I mark a point in my solo where it's got…

— James McBride

It's a real stumper to sit around and try to think in your own head, but when you go into somebody else's…

— James McBride

“The plain truth is that you’d have an easier time standing in the middle of the Mississippi River and requesting that it…

— James McBride

As a journalist, I never critiqued anyone. I never review books. I've never felt qualified as a musician to say whether someone…

— James McBride

You know what needs to be done when you're a writer. You know what the job is, particularly if you're an African…

— James McBride

“There's such a big difference between being dead and alive, I told myself, and the greatest sin a person can do to…

— James McBride

There has to be some mystery in life, because the joy of being a writer and the joy of being a musician…

— James McBride

There are some really great books that have been written about slavery, but I don't think that the discourse about it in…

— James McBride

There's such a big difference between being dead and alive, I told myself, the greatest gift that anyone can give anyone else…

— James McBride

The Good Lord Bird don't run in a flock. He Flies alone. You know why? He's searching. Looking for the right tree.…

— James McBride

As a journalist, the details always tell the story.

— James McBride