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. – James McBride
Newt Gingrich wrote a novel, and he’s a short story. Bill Clinton wrote a biography, and he’s a novel. – James McBride
I’m not one of those who can listen to music and write. I need the door closed. Windows shut. Facing the wall. No birds tweeting, views of nature, and so forth. – James McBride
The question of religion in black America is something filmmakers don’t want to touch. – James McBride
As far as making a living, if plumbing earned more, I’d probably do it. At least you can leave the job at home once the tools are put away. A writer works in his mind 24/7. – James McBride
John Brown was the abolitionist to end all abolitionists. People thought he was crazy. He was like John Coltrane playing free jazz, exhausting all possibilities in his approach to harmony and improvisation. – James McBride
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. – James McBride
Being a best-selling author doesn’t make you a millionaire. It’s not like Stephen King. – James McBride
People process pain differently. My family, we were pretty humorous about things that went on. – James McBride
Historical novels are hard to do for the general public for commercial writers like myself. – James McBride
I go through periods listening to specific types of music. Because I’m a musician, listening to music is… it’s a bit like work for me. A little bit. – James McBride
Every time I see something about the Wild West, I’m reminded that our version of history may not be what really happened. – James McBride
I think only now am I at the age where I’ve forgiven the past enough to say, ‘You know what? Slavery was there. Let’s talk about it in ways that will help us face tomorrow. – James McBride
As a writer, you have to be near people and hear stuff. I’m a hamburger and cheese kind of fellow; I’m not Henry David Thoreau. – James McBride
Historians will tell you that they deal with fact and empirical evidence. But that doesn’t really help me understand a person. – James McBride
My wife and kids like the quiet and the countryside – I still find that kind of quiet hard to listen to. – James McBride