Latest Bill James Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I tried not to write about the O.J. Simpson case too much because so much has already been said about it, but there are a lot of questions left worth asking. However, the case is very useful to illustrate other points. The case is a common reference point because everybody knows the ins and outs of it, more than any other case in this generation, so it becomes useful to reference other points. In itself, there aren't that many questions about it that remain unanswered.

  Bill James

  Writing, This Generation, Generations

  "Writer Bill James". "The Tavis Smiley Show", www.pbs.org. May 20, 2011.

• All societies have these cases. There are many, many crime cases that remain famous from the times of the Romans. The Bible is full of crime stories. You can almost flip to a page. Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers is a crime story. The Bible is full of crime stories.

  Bill James

  Brother, Stories, Slavery

  "Writer Bill James". "The Tavis Smiley Show", www.pbs.org. May 20, 2011.

• On the other hand, if you suggest to a person who has been a victim of a serious crime that we take the issue too seriously, they'll look at you like you're crazy. So that's a really tough issue, whether we're doing more harm than good by paying so much attention to a few cases that honestly don't normally intersect with our lives.

  Bill James

  Crazy, Hands, Issues

  "Writer Bill James". "The Tavis Smiley show", www.pbs.org. May 20, 2011.

• Famous crime stories almost always lead to the passing of new laws. There's a great many intersections between this unseemly tabloid phenomena and serious social issues and we never get to that intersection because serious people don't like to talk about that unattractive stuff.

  Bill James

  Law, Issues, People

  "Writer Bill James". "The Tavis Smiley Show", www.pbs.org. May 20, 2011.

• Men feel challenged when a woman is in danger, so those types of stories interest women and they interest men on a level that the crimes against men tend to draw a different visceral reaction. Again, not saying it's right, but they tend to draw a different visceral reaction, which is that the man was out in the world doing men stuff and something happened to him.

  Bill James

  Men, Different, Doing Me

  "Writer Bill James". "The Tavis Smiley show", www.pbs.org. May 20, 2011.

• Any of us are capable of doing things we're not proud of under the wrong kind of stresses. Anyone can become a drug addict if you let yourself do it and, once you become a drug addict, you'll do whatever you have to to get the drugs. Absolutely, anybody can do it.

  Bill James

  Stress, Drug, Proud

  "Writer Bill James". "The Tavis Smiley show", www.pbs.org. May 20, 2011.

• Television is full of fictional and real violence that's turned into entertainment. It's an interesting phenomena and I tried to put it in perspective and tried to think through a few of the real questions that this sometimes unseemly business raises.

  Bill James

  Real, Thinking, Interesting

  "Writer Bill James". "Tavis Smiley", www.pbs.org. May 20, 2011.

• Because crime stories reveal an aspect of our personality that everybody has, but which we normally keep very deeply hidden. We like to talk about the good sides of ourselves. We don't like to talk about our hatreds, our distrusts of one another, our secrets, but crime stories drag those things to the surface and consequently they fascinate people and always have throughout all history.

  Bill James

  People, Personality, Hatred

  "Writer Bill James". "The Tavis Smiley Show", www.pbs.org. May 20, 2011.