“I remembered that life in that room seemed to be occuring beneath the sea, time flowed past indiffrently above us, hours and… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“The paradox—and a fearful paradox it is—is that the American Negro can have no future anywhere, on any continent, as long as… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“In the context of the Negro problem neither whites nor blacks, for excellent reasons of their own, have the faintest desire to… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“this is the crime of which I accuse my country and my countrymen, and for which neither I nor time nor history… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“I know what I'm asking is impossible. But in our time, as in every time, the impossible is the least that one… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“To Americans, time always sounds like a parade chez vous [at your house], a triumphant parade, like armies with banners entering a… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“Time: the word tolled like the bells of a church. Fonny was doing: time. In six months time, our baby would be… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“The time has come to realize that the interracial drama acted out on the American continent has not only created a new… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“when the black populations of the world have a future, so will the Western nations have a future-and not till then. But… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“And yet - when one begins to search for the crucial, the definitive moment, the moment which changed all others, one finds… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“Then I wanted to beg him to forgive me. But this would have been too great a confession; any yielding at that… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“The summer ended. Day by day, and taking its time, the summer ended. The noises in the street began to change, diminish,… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“And they didn't even read; depressed populations don't have the time or energy to spare. The affluent populations, which should have been… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“If one wishes to be instructed--not that anyone does--concerning the treacherous role that memory plays in a human life, consider how relentlessly… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“We spend vast amounts of our time an emotional energy in learning how not to be natural and in eluding the trap… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“This was the last time I ever saw my mother alive. Just the same, this picture gets all mixed up in my… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“I smiled and I really felt at that moment that Judas and the Savior had met in me. [...] And yet even… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“What are you doing all the time? And why do you say nothing? You are evil, you know, and sometimes when you… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“Why no," he said, reasonably, and looked at his watch, "we can wait another hour if you like. We can become friends… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“When he was dead I realized that I had hardly ever spoken to him. When he had been dead a long time… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“this is the crime of which I accuse my country and my countrymen, and for which neither I nor time nor history… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“The salvation of America lies in whether or not it is able to embrace the black face. If it cannot do that,… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“What the times demand, and in an unprecedented fashion, is that one be—not seem—outrageous, independent, anarchical. That one be thoroughly disciplined—as a… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“I remember that life in that room seemed to be occurring beneath the sea, time flowed past indifferently above us, hours and… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“It seems to be typical of life in America, where opportunities, real and fancied, are thicker than anywhere else on the globe,… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“In any case, white people, who had robbed black people of their liberty and who profited by this theft every hour that they lived,… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“The South is very beautiful but its beauty makes one sad because the lives that people live, and have lived here, are so ugly… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“All cultures have, furthermore, an economic, social, and political base, and no culture can continue to live if its political destiny is not in… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“I remembered that life in that room seemed to be occuring beneath the sea, time flowed past indiffrently above us, hours and days had… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“No. It would help if I were able to feel guilty.But the end of innocence is also the end of guilt” — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“Perhaps now, though, he had hit bottom. One thing about the bottom, he told himself, you can't fall any further. He tried to take… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“What kind of friendship have you had? Or for that matter...what kind of love affairs?” — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“For these are all our children, we will all profit by or pay for what they become.” — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“Every society is really governed by hidden laws, by unspoken but profound assumptions on the part of the people, and ours is no exception.” — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“In those days my mother was given to the exasperating and mysterious habit of having babies.” — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“He was suggesting that all Negroes were held in a state of supreme tension between the difficult, dangerous relationship in which they stood to… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“In the beginning—and neither can this be overstated—a Negro just cannot believe that white people are treating him as they do; he does not… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
