Quotes from James McBride

A lot of people are not interested in stories in which they don't see themselves.

Newt Gingrich wrote a novel, and he's a short story. Bill Clinton wrote a biography, and he's a novel.

When you're interviewing someone, even your mother - you have to sort of deal with you have to get some objective space from yourself and the person but you also have to find what's the best way to get the information from that person.

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

Anyone can write your own life story.

Essentially, I'm a storyteller, and I make my living by telling stories, be they music or nonfiction or fiction.

It's the same old story. Nothing in this world happens unless white folks says it happens. And therein lies the problem of being a professional black storyteller - writer, musician, filmmaker.

I was in a special class in high school for truants. They made us stay together all day. Once a week, they would send us to a guidance counselor. He would sit me in his office and he would try to talk to me.

Don't get me started on Americans and war. One of the things I learnt over in Italy is how they mythologised the war so that it's all good old gung-ho guys from Omaha and ignored everyone else's role.

You can't write just anything. Your story needs structure.

The starting point of all great jazz has got to be format, a language that you can work within that, in some ways, is much tighter than the blues or even gospel. It's all working towards the same destination - the difference being that Miles Davis flew there, and I'm still taking the subway.

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

Fiction makes your dreams come true, and, as a writer, fiction allows you to delve into the area of miracles.

Most of my work is done when everyone else is asleep.

A daily dose of Nietzsche goes a long way.

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

My family is my career.

We would not have been a successful family without my father and stepfather, who were working-class men with better dreams for their children. We just wore them out.

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