A biography for James McBridehasn’t been written yet.
“I think what makes his story unique from others is there is not really one piece of American pop music you hear today that does not have some James Brown in it.”
“The question of religion in black America is something filmmakers don't want to touch.”
“Historians will tell you that they deal with fact and empirical evidence. But that doesn't really help me understand a person.”
“Atticus Finch is, you know, he was just his whole - the business of his modesty and his ability to see tomorrow and to try to buttress his knowledge of what was coming for his kids was something that I'll never - as a father I'm not able to do.”
“My family is my career.”
“I don't want to read a book that's depressing.”
“I love the language of, you know, the old black country man with a blues guitar and... boots and the quick banter.”
“Be kind to the living.”
“Historical novels are hard to do for the general public for commercial writers like myself.”
“Everybody knew James Brown. Every musician dreamed of being in his band.”
“A band is not a democracy: It's show business.”
“If you can whistle the melody, then the song will stick. But if you need a bunch of machines to make it sound good, you're probably not writing anything that's going to last a long time.”
“I don't like a bunch of writers sitting around, puffing smoke, they like this book, he wrote this - tell me a dirty joke, you know. It's just not my style, I've never been that kind of person.”
“I hate to sound blase about it, but literary status is not important to me. Being happy is important to me.”
“I'd like to do something involving jazz. But books are how I earn my living, and I'd like to stay with the horse I rode in on.”
“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.”
“I'm not one of those deeper, ethereal writers. I'm just trying to get it done.”
“If you don't have humor, you're not going to make it. You're going to be one of those people who walks around with your head about to explode.”
“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.”
“I read more history books than anything else.”