James McBride
James McBride
writing cutting fats
Writing for me is cutting out the fat and getting to the meaning.
biographies bills stories
Newt Gingrich wrote a novel, and he's a short story. Bill Clinton wrote a biography, and he's a novel.
church lucky want
I grew up in the church, and so I feel that God gave me certain things to do, and I'm lucky enough to kind of have figured those things out. I just don't want to die not having tried to help somebody else with what I know.
educate
Educate yourself or you'll be a nobody!
men white-man understanding
I come to the understanding that maybe what was on the inside was more important, and that your outer covering didn't count so much as folks thought it did, colored or white, man or woman.
friends children school
My black friends never asked me how much money I made, or what school my children went to, or anything like that. They just said, "Come as you are."
teacher strong nice
I could have been, and may one day well be a high school English teacher, because I've been given so much I just feel like I have to give something back. The fact that some people consider my work to be good or strong, it's nice, but I know in my heart that if it's not coming - oftentimes it's probably not coming from the best place.
differences race doe
But what difference does it make? ... When you're mixed, you see how absurd this business of race is.
home keys people
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 to peak at point D I go to A, B, C D then I'm home.
soul world sides
Sometimes it seemed like the truth was a bandy-legged soul who dashed from one side of the world to the other and I could never find him.
believe thinking self
I'm trying to educate people about things that I believe are right, and some of the things that I believe are right might not be right, so I live in constant self-doubt. I think that creates a kind of search that you have to have, and it prevents you from doing a lot of stuff that you would normally do.
kids self toys
I felt like a Tinker toy kid building my own self out of one of those toy building sets; for as she laid her life before me, I reassembled the tableau of her words like a picture puzzle, and as I did, so my own life was rebuilt.
caring up-to-you seeds
God gived you the seed. But the watering and caring of that seed is up to you.
sweet family-life
So sweet and precious is family life.