I often wonder what I'd do if there weren't any books in the world. James A. Baldwin More Quotes by James A. Baldwin More Quotes From James A. Baldwin Sometimes you hear a person speak the truth and you know that they are speaking the truth. But you also know that they have not heard themselves, do not know what they have said: do not know that they have revealed much more than they have said. This may be why the truth remains, on the whole, so rare. James A. Baldwin speakmaysometimes People are continually pointing out to me the wretchedness of white people in order to console me for the wretchedness of blacks. But an itemized account of the American failure does not console me and it should not console anyone else. That hundreds of thousands of white people are living, in effect, no better than the "niggers" is not a fact to be regarded with complacency. The social and moral bankruptcy suggested by this fact is of the bitterest, most terrifying kind. James A. Baldwin whiteorderpeople When you're writing you're trying to find out something which you don't know. James A. Baldwin knowswritingtrying It happened, as many things do, imperceptibly, in many ways at once. I date it - the slow crumbling of my faith, the pulverization of my fortress - from the time, about a year after I had begun to preach, when I began to read again. I justified this desire by the fact that I was still in school, and I began, fatally, with Dostoyevsky. James A. Baldwin desireyearsschool It is astonishing that in a country so devoted to the individual, so many people should be afraid to speak. James A. Baldwin speakcountrypeople Americans, unhappily, have the most remarkable ability to alchemize all bitter truths into an innocuous but piquant confection and to transform their moral contradictions, or public discussion of such contradictions, into a proud decoration, such as are given for heroism on the field of battle. James A. Baldwin societybattleamerica The states of birth, suffering, love, and death, are extreme states: extreme, universal, and inescapable. We all know this, but we would rather not know it. The artist is present to correct the delusions to which we are all prey in our attempts to avoid this knowledge." - James Baldwin, "The Creative Process James A. Baldwin creativeartistsuffering It must be remembered that in those great days I was considered to be an "integrationist" - this was never, quite, my own idea of myself - and Malcolm was considered to be a "racist in reverse." This formulation, in terms of power - and power is the arena in which racism is acted out - means absolutely nothing: it may even be described as a cowardly formulation. The powerless, by definition, can never be "racists," for they can never make the world pay for what they feel or fear except by the suicidal endeavor which makes them fanatics or revolutionaries, or both. James A. Baldwin suicidalmeanideas We can make America what America must become. James A. Baldwin america Each of us, helplessly and forever, contains the other - male in female, female in male, white in black, and black in white. We are part of each other. Many of my countrymen appear to find this fact exceedingly inconvenient and even unfair, and so, very often, do I. But none of us can do anything about it. James A. Baldwin blackwhiteforever Sentimentality, the ostentatious parading of excessive and spurious emotion, is the mark of dishonesty, the inability to feel. James A. Baldwin dishonestyinabilityemotion When human rights are abused on a grand scale, the broth of purity boils and feeds the rebellion of a new order. James A. Baldwin revolutionrightsorder To defend oneself against a fear is simply to insure that one will, one day, be conquered by it; fears must be faced. James A. Baldwin oneselfone-daylife We have all had the experience of finding that our reactions and perhaps even our deeds have denied beliefs we thought were ours. James A. Baldwin fake-peopledeedsbelief The impossible is the least that one can demand. James A. Baldwin demandimpossible Being in the pulpit, was like being in the theatre; I was behind the scenes and knew how the illusion worked. James A. Baldwin behind-the-scenesillusiontheatre Identity would seem to be the garment with which one covers the nakedness of the self: in which case, it is best that the garment be loose, a little like the robes of the desert, through which one's nakedness can always be felt, and, sometimes, discerned. This trust in one's nakedness is all that gives one the power to change one's robes. James A. Baldwin changeselfgiving 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, one realized that it was not to be found in any of the usual places. For this was not a matter of habit or circumstance or temperament; it was a matter of punishment and grief. James A. Baldwin punishmentgriefkeys If you think too far ahead, if you even try to think too far ahead, you'll never make it. James A. Baldwin tryinglifethinking Then I buckled up my shoes, and I started. James A. Baldwin shoesinspirational
