James McBride
James McBride
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."
educate
Educate yourself or you'll be a nobody!
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.
children hate believe
There's such a big difference between being dead and alive, I told myself, the greatest gift that anyone can give anyone else is life. And the greatest sin a person can do to another is to take away that life. Next to that, all the rules and religions in the world are secondary; mere words and beliefs that people choose to believe and kill and hate by. My life won't be lived that way, and neither, I hope, will my children's.
years america parent
My parents were nonmaterialistic. They believed that money without knowledge was worthless, that education tempered with religion was the way to climb out of poverty in America, and over the years they were proven right.
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.
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.
hands
Put yourself in God’s hands and you can’t go wrong.
games the-end-of-the-day answers
But at the end of the day, there are some questions that have no answers, and then one answer that has no question: love rules the game. Every time. All the time. That’s what counts.
biographies bills stories
Newt Gingrich wrote a novel, and he's a short story. Bill Clinton wrote a biography, and he's a novel.
tissues kind form
If you have the material it will form itself as a kind of connective tissue.
fuel not-interested
I'm not interested in food. It's just fuel.
careers my-family
My family is my career.
book college giving
I just read history books. I read nothing but history books. They have so much to give; I wish I'd majored in history in college.