[2] Simpson would joke that his love for quotes was perhaps genetic since his mother—who died when he was just an infant—would also highlight her favorite passages and clip articles from newspapers and magazines just like the hobby that her son developed.
[5][6][3] He spent his summers working in newsrooms in cities across the country such as Chicago and San Francisco before ultimately settling in New York.
[7] In addition, Simpson had written for periodicals including Esquire, Town & Country, TV Guide, Reader’s Digest, and the New York Times Magazine.
[8] Later in life as a priest, he was also a correspondent for the British publications, The Living Church and Church Times, and authored several books on religion including Veil and Cowl: Writings from the World of Monks and Nuns, Regent of the Sea, The Long Shadows of Lambeth X, Stars in His Crown: Anglican Religious Orders, Discerning God's Will: Lambeth XI, Seasons of the Spirit, and A Treasury of Anglican Art.
[7] Apart from his career as a journalist, Simpson was also a television network consultant, worked in the advertising world as an account executive and then had a stint in corporate public relations.
During the 15 years he spent in New York, one of his first jobs involved searching for the funny or unique sayings of upcoming guest stars on the early NBC talk show, "Who Said That?
As the late librarian of Congress Daniel J. Boorstin put it, the experiences of his early life "finally inspired him to still another view of the immortal word, and he became an Episcopal priest.
Upon a second examination, if he still felt they were worthy of posterity, he would then catalog the story from which the quote was taken by clipping the article from the publication and storing it in a binder as well as noting its source, date and context in his computer.
"[15] He took his quotes, according to a 1997 article in The Christian Science Monitor, from not only newspapers but weekly and monthly magazines and the transcripts of 60 Minutes, 20/20, Dateline NBC, Primetime, and Sunday morning talk show broadcasts.
[3][12] In fact, Simpson felt that his work as a priest and his penchant for collecting quotations were symbiotically intertwined in saying that, "It helps make my sermons more interesting.
"[5] Of the most notable quotes he had compiled in his career, Simpson’s personal favorites included one by the novelist, Graham Greene: "When a train pulls into a great city, I am reminded of the closing moments of an overture"[4] one from the Bible, Ecclesiasticus 39: "He that giveth his mind … will keep the sayings of the renowned, and where subtle parables are, he will be there also.
He will seek the secrets of grave sentences and be conversant in dark parables"[11] and one by Albert Camus: "In the depth of winter I finally learned that within me lay an invincible summer.
James B. Simpson saw as his mission the documentation of the words of leaders, thinkers, journalists, social activists, artists, and pundits.
[9] While other authors in this genre wrote books to locate the precise form of the quotes of the ancients and the literary classics, Simpson, with his journalist’s sensibility, had another plan.
[3] As a resident of Cathedral Heights, he noted that choosing American for the gift seemed natural since the university was located in his neighborhood and he had always felt welcome in its academic community through his interactions with faculty members, visits to the library, and guest lectures on the importance of quotes in journalism.