--- description: Find out why James McBride is one of the 100 most influential people of 2024. title: James McBride: The 100 Most Influential People of 2024 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0eb2a885fb9b025f/698a55b2d07533723de70ad1/time-100-2024-james-McBride-01.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 17, 2024 # James McBride by Ethan Hawke  Chia Messina As a kid, you dream about meeting a great novelist. You imagine them as kind, noble, wise, omniscient. When I met James McBride, I felt like I’d had coffee with a hysterically funny 21st century Leo Tolstoy. James has all the qualities one would expect. With _The Color of Water,_ _The Good Lord Bird,_ _Kill ’Em and Leave,_ _Deacon King Kong,_ and now _The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store,_ his excellence in the art of storytelling defies gravity. He writes about deep American wounds with love, rage, and a sense of wit that flies like a falcon in large leaping circles, riding the invisible winds of history. In creating the limited series [_The Good Lord Bird_](https://time.com/5895308/good-lord-bird-showtime-review/ "undefined")_,_ I learned that James is also the kind of friend you dream of making. When things get rough, he never loses his sense of humor, his wisdom, and his powerful ability to communicate. If James is one of the most influential artists in America, then there is great hope for America. _Hawke is an Oscar-nominated actor, writer, and director_ James McBride Is on the 2024 TIME100 List ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2024/6964716/james-mcbride-2024/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2024/6964716/james-mcbride-2024/"},"headline":"James McBride","datePublished":"2024-04-17T11:00:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:29:02.520Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2024/6964716/james-mcbride-2024/","keywords":["TIME100","franchise","Magazine","Special Project","sponsorshipblock","Accolades","2024TIME100","T100Artists2024"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0eb2a885fb9b025f/698a55b2d07533723de70ad1/time-100-2024-james-McBride-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0eb2a885fb9b025f/698a55b2d07533723de70ad1/time-100-2024-james-McBride-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2024/6964716/james-mcbride-2024/","name":"James McBride"}}]}] ```