Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
James Brown's music still sounds as fresh and as good and as new as it did when he first created it.
But what difference does it make? ... When you're mixed, you see how absurd this business of race is.
I used to walk through the Old Times Square fearing for my life. Now I wouldn't be caught dead there.
First person narrative is a very effective tool but you have to know as a writer how to make it work.
Newt Gingrich wrote a novel, and he's a short story. Bill Clinton wrote a biography, and he's a novel.
I don't like living around too many fancy-pantsy folks. That ain't my thing. I'm not into phony people.
My wife and kids like the quiet and the countryside - I still find that kind of quiet hard to listen to.
I cannot recall any moment of clarity about becoming a writer. I always liked to read. That's what did it.
I hate to sound blase about it, but literary status is not important to me. Being happy is important to me.
I like stories where normal people are in abnormal situations, and that's what appeals to me about history.
Fiction makes your dreams come true, and, as a writer, fiction allows you to delve into the area of miracles.
James Brown's life was really a metaphor for our inability to talk about matters like race and class in America.
Essentially, I'm a storyteller, and I make my living by telling stories, be they music or nonfiction or fiction.
I asked her if I was black or white. She replied "You are a human being. Educate yourself or you'll be a nobody!
I love the language of, you know, the old black country man with a blues guitar and... boots and the quick banter.
When I was younger, I was ambitious. Now I'm not ambitious anymore. I just want to be happy. Does that make sense?
My father died in 1957, just before I was born. My mother went to her Jewish aunt, who slammed the door in her face.
All of us want to be Superman when we grow up, fighting for truth and justice. That's part of what drives me as a writer.
Every time I see something about the Wild West, I'm reminded that our version of history may not be what really happened.
When my mother left home, her family sat shivah for her, more because my father was not Jewish than because he was black.
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.
Historians will tell you that they deal with fact and empirical evidence. But that doesn't really help me understand a person.
My goal is to be able to fill out one of those forms that asks 'Who are you?' and be able to just put 'Human being,' you know?
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.
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.
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.
I'm proud of 'Miracle at St. Anna' and I loved it; there's no question in my mind it's as good as any movie that came out in 2007.
People call him a terrorist, but you can use language to do many things and say many things about people, but John Brown was a hero.
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.
I write stories that are already in the air, and I think it's important to have the correct listening device to tune in to that frequency.
You have to be able to toss the thing out. You can't fall in love with your characters, and you have to know when to fight - and when to quit.
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.
What humor allows you to do is to let the past go with less pain. It's a healing element. It releases some of the pain from the shotgun wound.
I grew up in a house with a lot of kids, brothers and sisters. So I don't mind a lot of talking, yelling, playing. I can tune most of that out.
I wish all critics, no matter their color, were more sophisticated when it comes to the moral questions a film like 'St. Anna' is trying to raise.
When you study history in American schools, very rarely is the name John Brown mentioned. We know who Kanye West is or Twyla Tharp or Shania Twain.
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."
James Brown was the Monday-to-Friday guy. He was the hardest man in show business. He was like your dad and your uncle: He showed up, and he hit hard.
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.
When we're talking about slavery... we're really talking about the web of relationships that exists between whites and blacks from 1619 to 1865 to now.
The abolitionists were not like the rugged people out West, and they were not like John Brown, either. They were people who made speeches and did politics.
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.
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 James Brown story is not about James Brown. It's about who's getting paid, whose interest is involved, who can squeeze the estate and black history for more.
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 understand it's great to read a great book, but it's better to live your life. It just helps me. It's uncomfortable at times, but you have to live outside the circle.
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.
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.
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.
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.