James Frey
I'm writing books. They're still a mix of fact and fiction and will continue to be. I think it's an interesting place to work.Collection: Book
What someone calls my books is irrelevant to me. I consider them works of art and rules and categories and labels mean nothing.Collection: Art
L.A is a huge place, literally and metaphorically. Its beauty and horror. Its unconventional history. Its draw and allure. Its diversity and segregation.Collection: Diversity
Dreams can come true there [Los Angeles]in ways impossible anywhere else, and they can get destroyed as well.Collection: Dream
We know have the power of God in many ways: the atomic bomb, the ability to create life in a test tube, cloning, artificial intelligence.Collection: Bombs
Coming after all the bullshit related to A Million Little Pieces, nobody was expecting anything from me. No publisher, no agent, no one. Just me and the book. It was great.Collection: Book
I just think it's a great world to tell stories in, to tell cool stories: money, sex, fame, and scandal. Those are great subject matters to work with.Collection: Sex
I'm pretty good at compartmentalizing things and not allowing things outside of myself to distract me or bother me or affect me in any way.Collection: Way
Writing's not precious to me. It's not a thing that requires specific environment. You know, it's my job. Just like anybody with a job, you have to do your job when you don't feel like it, regardless of how good or bad the conditions are, regardless of how good or bad you might feel on any particular day.Collection: Jobs
I try to make the voice in my head come out onto the page. I try to make it much more conversational than other writing. I speak everything, so if something sounds right I write it. It's more about sound and the rhythm of speech than written language.Collection: Writing
To say that you can't see echoes of the past in what I do would be absurd. Everything that has preceded me has affected me.Collection: Past
I don't write with an outline. I don't often know what I'm going to do as I'm writing. And I do everything by feel and by instinct.Collection: Writing
I think, living in America, we're so bombarded with God all the time that in certain ways I'm making statements against that bombardment, you know? I think it's crazy. I mean, I don't believe in God. I don't believe in anything. But I still think about it. And I still write about it.Collection: Crazy
One of the beautiful and terrible things about America is you can go there and still be whatever you want, if you bust your ass and you have some luck.Collection: Beautiful
The best stories are universal stories that have been told for as long as humanity has existed it's just figuring out new ways to do it, with language, with structure. And so I'm always trying to do that.Collection: Always Trying
He pulled out turned west and started driving towards the glow it was thousands of miles away, he started driving towards the glow.Collection: West
Sleep is still difficult I sleep for three or four hours a day. Usually sometime in the afternoon. I walk in the cold, keep myself numb. I cry less, and less." (James Frey, pg.88)Collection: Sleep
I look at pastries and cakes, tarts and pies. My body craves sugar, always craves sugar. Years of alcohalism and the high level of sugar in alcohal created the craving, which I feed with candy and soda.Collection: Years
I hope nobody took the Razzle Dazzle Rose.Collection: Rose
I just started trying to figure out how to write [something] which was unlike anything anybody had ever seen, and once I felt like I had figured that out I tried to figure out what kind of book I could write that would be unlike anything anybody had ever seen. When I started writing A Million Little Pieces I felt like it was the right story with the style I had been looking for, and I just kept going.Collection: Book
Everything I know and I am and I have seen felt done past present past now then before now seen felt done hurt felt focus into a something beyond words beyond beyond beyond and it speaks now and it says. Stay. Fight. Live. Take it.Collection: Hurt
I often think of death. True. Suicide is a reasonable option. True. My sins are unpardonable. I stare at the question. My sins are unpardonable. I stare at the question. My sins are unpardonable. I leave it blank.Collection: Suicide
The Young Man came to the Old Man seeking counsel. I broke something, Old Man. How badly is it broken? It's in a million little pieces. I'm afraid I can't help you. Why? There's nothing you can do. Why? It can't be fixed. Why? It's broken beyond repair. It's in a million little pieces.Collection: Men
Even a second of freedom is worth more than a lifetime of bondage.Collection: Freedom
It's cold and it's winter and the world has gone to sleepCollection: Sleep
I stand, walk over to him, sit down on his bed, put my arms around him, hug him. He hugs me back strong and I can feel the shame coming through his arms. I am a Criminal and he is a Judge and I am white and he is black, but at this moment none of that matters. He is a man who needs a friends and I can be his friend.Collection: Strong
If I was gonna write a book that was true, and I was gonna write a book that was honest, then I was gonna have to write about myself in very, very negative ways.Collection: Book
You should at all times be showing a well-motivated character overcoming obstacles in pursuit of a goal.Collection: Character
Stay. Fight. Live. Take it. Cry. Cry. Cry.Collection: Fighting
I think of how and why and what happened and the thoughts come easily, but the answers don't.Collection: Thinking
I think men who can cry are strong men.Collection: Strong
Sometimes skulls are thick. Sometimes hearts are vacant. Sometimes words don’t work.Collection: Hipster
I just think it’s a great world to tell stories in, to tell cool stories: money, sex, fame, and scandal. Those are great subject matters to work with.Collection: Stories
That’s what ever great writer, I believe, has done over the course of time – is they’ve figured out new ways of telling the same stories.Collection: Stories