In the invincible and indescribable squalor of Harlem ... I was tormented. I felt caged, like an animal. I wanted to escape. I felt if I did not get out I would slowly strangle. James A. Baldwin More Quotes by James A. Baldwin More Quotes From James A. Baldwin To be born in a free society and not to be born free is to be born into a lie. To be told by co-citizens and co-Christians that you have no value, no history, have never done anything that is worthy of human respect destroys you because in the beginning you believe it. James A. Baldwin christian believe lying No people come into possession of a culture without having paid a heavy price for it. James A. Baldwin literature culture people Be careful what you set your heart upon - for it will surely be yours. James A. Baldwin broken-heart success inspirational Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition. James A. Baldwin irrevocable conditions home Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies, flags, nations, in order to deny the fact of death, the only fact we have. It seems to me that one ought to rejoice in the fact of death - ought to decide, indeed, to earn one's death by confronting with passion the conundrum of life. James A. Baldwin sacrifice passion army The trick is to love somebody.... If you love one person, you see everybody else differently. James A. Baldwin tricks persons love-you If I am not what you say I am, then you are not who you think you are. James A. Baldwin ifs thinking A writer has to take all the risks of putting down what he sees. No one can tell him about that. No one can control that reality. It reminds me of something Pablo Picasso was supposed to have said to Gertrude Stein while he was painting her portrait. Gertrude said, “I don’t look like that.” And Picasso replied, “You will.” And he was right. James A. Baldwin portraits risk reality The interior life is a real life, and the intangible dreams of people have a tangible effect on the world. James A. Baldwin real dream people When Americans look out on the world, they see nothing but dark and menacing strangers who appear to have no sense of rhythm at all, nor any respect or affection for white people; and white Americans really do not know what to make of all this, except to increase the defense budget. James A. Baldwin white dark people The poet or the revolutionary is there to articulate the necessity, but until the people themselves apprehend it, nothing can happen ... Perhaps it can't be done without the poet, but it certainly can't be done without the people. The poet and the people get on generally very badly, and yet they need each other. The poet knows it sooner than the people do. The people usually know it after the poet is dead; but that's all right. The point is to get your work done, and your work is to change the world. James A. Baldwin done people needs People can't, unhappily, invent their mooring posts, their lovers and their friends, anymore than they can invent their parents. Life gives these and also takes them away and the great difficulty is to say Yes to life. James A. Baldwin parent giving people True rebels after all, are as rare as true lovers,and in both cases, to mistake a fever for passion can destroy one's life James A. Baldwin rebel passion mistake People pay for what they do, and still more for what they have allowed themselves to become, and they pay for it, very simply, by the lives they lead. James A. Baldwin karma change inspirational I conceive of God, in fact, as a means of liberation and not a means to control others. James A. Baldwin liberation mean facts To accept one’s past – one’s history – is not the same thing as drowning in it; it is learning how to use it. An invented past can never be used; it cracks and crumbles under the pressures of life like clay in a season of drought. James A. Baldwin clay cracks past But the relationship of morality and power is a very subtle one. Because ultimately power without morality is no longer power. James A. Baldwin subtle morality power When the white man came to Africa, the white man had the Bible and the African had the land, but now it is the white man who is being, reluctantly and bloodily, separated from the land, and the African who is still attempting to digest or to vomit up the Bible. James A. Baldwin white-man land men People can cry much easier than they can change. James A. Baldwin self-improvement change people To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time. James A. Baldwin african-american literature country
