All James A. Baldwin Quotes
- Any real change implies the breakup of the world as one has always known it, the loss of all that gave one an identity, the… All
- Yr crown has been bought and paid for. All you have to do is put it on yr head All
- I can't believe what you say, because I see what you do. Believe
- Trust life, and it will teach you, in joy and sorrow, all you need to know. All
- Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word "love" here not… American
- Americans should never come to Europe,' she said, and tried to laugh and began to cry, 'it means they never can be happy again. What's… All
- We cannot discuss the state of our minorities until we first have a sense of what we are, who we are, what our goals are,… Cannot Discuss
- Artists are here to disturb the peace. Artist
- All I know about music is that not many people ever really hear it. And even then, on the rare occasions when something opens within,… Air
- Whose little boy are you? African American
- Whoever debases others is debasing himself. Debases
- But it was not the room’s disorder which was frightening; it was the fact that when one began searching for the key to this disorder,… Any
- Perhaps, as we say in America, I wanted to find myself. This is an interesting phrase, not current as far as I know in the… America
- Tell me, he said, "What is this thing about time? Why is it better to be late than early? People are always saying, we must… Always Saying
- You don’t have a home until you leave it and then, when you have left it, you never can go back. Don T
- These boys, now, were living as we'd been living then, they were growing up with a rush and their heads bumped abruptly against the low… Abruptly
- It is astonishing the lengths to which a person, or a people, will go in order to avoid a truthful mirror. Astonishing
- This is the charged, the dangerous moment, when everything must be re-examined, must be made new, when nothing at all can be taken for granted. All
- People who cling to their illusions find it difficult, if not impossible, to learn anything worth learning: a people under the necessity of creating themselves… Anything Worth
- If you are going to be a writer there is nothing I can say to stop you; if you're not going to be a writer… Beginning
- Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition. Condition
- Hatred is always self hatred, and there is something suicidal about it. Always Self
- People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state on innocence long after… Anyone
- We are very cruelly trapped between what we would like to be and what we actually are. And we cannot possibly become what we would… Ask
- It is dangerous to be an American Negro male. America has never wanted its Negroes to be men, and does not, generally, treat them as… America