The Good Lord Bird Quotes

“Whatever he believed, he believed. It didn’t matter to him whether it was really true or not. He just changed the truth till it fit him. He was a real white man.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“He was like everybody in war. He believed God was on his side. Everybody got God on their side in a war. Problem is, God ain’t tellin’ nobody who He’s for.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“Whatever you is, Onion," he said, "be it full.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“The Good Lord Bird don't run in a flock. He Flies alone. You know why? He's searching. Looking for the right tree. And when he sees that tree, that dead tree that's taking all the nutrition and good things from the forest floor. He goes out and he gnaws at it, and he gnaws at it till the thing gets tired and it falls down. And the dirt from it raises other trees. It gives them good things to eat. It makes 'em strong. Gives 'em life. And the circle goes 'round.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“Some things in this world just ain't mean to be, not in the times we want 'em to, and the heart has to hold it in this world as a remembrance, a promise for the world that's to come. There's a prize at the end of all of it, but still, that's a heavy load to bear.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“It occurred to me then that you is everything you are in this life at every moment. And that includes loving somebody. If you can't be your own self, how can you love somebody? How can you be free? That pressed on my heart like a vise right then. Just mashed me down.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“God gived you the seed. But the watering and caring of that seed is up to you.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“Being a Negro’s a lie, anyway. Nobody sees the real you. Nobody knows who you are inside. You just judged on what you are on the outside whatever your color. Mulatto, colored, black, it don’t matter. You just a Negro to the world.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“I come to the understanding that maybe what was on the inside was more important, and that your outer covering didn't count so much as folks thought it did, colored or white, man or woman.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“The old face, crinkled and dented with canals running every which way, pushed and shoved up against itself for a while, till a big old smile busted out from beneath 'em all, and his grey eyes fairly glowed. It was the first time I ever saw him smile free. A true smile. It was like looking at the face of God. And I knowed then, for the first time, that him being the person to lead the colored to freedom weren't no lunacy. It was something he knowed true inside him. I saw it clear for the first time. I knowed then, too, that he knowed what I was - from the very first.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“This is what happens when a boy becomes a man. You get stupider.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“when folks wanna believe something, the truth ain’t got no place in that compartment.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“Wonderful," he said. "Tell me. Which books in the Bible do you favor?"
"Oh, I favors 'em all," Pa said. "But I mostly like Hezekiel, Ahab, Trotter, and Pontiff the Emperor."
The Old Man frowned. "I don't recollect I have read those," he said.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“It occurred to me then that you is everything you are in this life at every moment.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“Them fellers was dangerous, but for the simple reason they had a cause. Ain't no worse thing in the world than fronting up against one of those, for a man with a cause, right or wrong, has got plenty to prove, and will make you suck sorrow if you get in the way of 'em wrongly.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“...for one thing you learns when you is a girl is that most women's hearts is full of secrets.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“skinny as horsehair in a glass of milk”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“Chase looked 'round and seen Frederick's grave where we'd buried him.

"Who's that?"

"Don't know. We been hiding in this thicket while the Free Staters was scouting 'round here. I heard 'em say it was one of theirs."

Chase pondered the grave thoughtfully. "It's a fresh grave. We ought to see if who'sever in there got on boots," he said.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“I had thoroughly been a girl so long by then that I'd grown to like it, got used to it, got used to not having to lift things, and have folks make excuses for me on account of me not being strong enough, or fast enough, or powerful enough like a boy, on account of my size. But that's the thing. You can play one part in life, but you can't be that thing. You just playing it. You're not real.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“We all got to die," she said. "But dying as your true self is always better. God'll take you however you come to Him. But it's easier on a soul to come to Him clean. You're forever free that way. From top to bottom.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“There is an eternity behind and an eternity before, Onion. That little speck at the center, however long, is life. And that is but comparatively a minute,” he said. “I has done what the Lord has asked me to do in the little time I had. That was my purpose. To hive the colored.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“The Good Lord Bird don’t run in a flock. He flies alone. You know why? He’s searching. Looking for the right tree. And when he sees that tree, that dead tree that’s taking all the nutrition and good things from the forest floor. He goes out and he gnaws at it, and he gnaws at it till that thing gets tired and falls down. And the dirt from it raises the other trees. It gives them good things to eat. It makes ’em strong. Gives ’em life. And the circle goes ’round.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“He ain't gonna live long, child. He's crazy. He thinks the n***ers's equal to the white man.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“The Negro comes in many colors. Dark. Black. Blacker. Blackest. Blacker than night. Black as hell. Black as tar.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“Ain’t no worse thing in the world than fronting up against one of those, for a man with a cause, right or wrong, has got plenty to prove, and will make you suck sorrow if you get in the way of ’em wrongly.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“There is an eternity behind and an eternity before, Onion. That little speck at the center, however long, is life. And that is but comparatively a minute," he said. "I has done what the Lord has asked me to do in the little time I had. That was my purpose. To hive the colored.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“I come to enjoy them talks, for even though I’d gotten used to living a lie—being a girl—it come to me this way: Being a Negro’s a lie, anyway. Nobody sees the real you. Nobody knows who you are inside. You just judged on what you are on the outside whatever your color. Mulatto, colored, black, it don’t matter. You just a Negro to the world.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“A body can't prosper if a person don't know who they are. That makes you poor as a pea, not knowing who you are inside. That's worse than being anything in the world on the outside.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“I wouldn't throw her outta bed for eating crackers. She was all class.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“There ain't nothing gets a Yankee madder than a smart colored person, of which I reckon they figured there was only one in the world, Mr. Douglass.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird