You write in order to change the world. James A. Baldwin More Quotes by James A. Baldwin More Quotes From James A. Baldwin There is never time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment; the time is always now. James A. Baldwin futureblessingtime I remember standing on a street corner with the black painter Beauford Delaney down in the Village, waiting for the light to change, and he pointed down and said, 'Look.' I looked and all I saw was water. And he said, 'Look again,' which I did, and I saw oil on the water and the city reflected in the puddle. It was a great revelation to me. I can't explain it. He taught me how to see, and how to trust what I saw. Painters have often taught writers how to see. And once you've had that experience, you see differently. James A. Baldwin lightcitieswriting Unless a writer is extremely old when he dies, in which case he has probably become a neglected institution, his death must always be seen as untimely. This is because a real writer is always shifting and changing and searching. The world has many labels for him, of which the most treacherous is the label of Success. James A. Baldwin labelsrealwriting 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 that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster. James A. Baldwin eyelongreality Because I was raised in a Christian culture I never considered myself to be a totally free human being. James A. Baldwin raisedchristianculture Freedom lurked around us and I understood, at last, that he could help us be free if we would listen, that he would never be free until we did. James A. Baldwin understoodlastshelping When one begins to live by habit and by quotation, one has begun to stop living. James A. Baldwin habitlive-byliterature There is something terribly radical about believing that one's own experience and images are important enough to speak about, much less to write about and to perform James A. Baldwin importantwritingbelieve There exists among the intolerable degraded, the perverse and powerful desire to force into the arena of the actual those fantastic crimes of which they have been accused, achieving their vengeance and their own destruction through making the nightmare real. James A. Baldwin powerfulrealevil You don't realize that you're intelligent until it gets you into trouble. James A. Baldwin realizingintelligenttrouble It is hard for anyone under twenty to realise that death has already assigned them a number, which is going to come up one day. James A. Baldwin one-daytwentiesnumbers I must oppose any attempt that Negroes may make to do to others what has been done to them. . . . I know the spiritual wasteland to which that road leads . . . whoever debases others is debasing himself. James A. Baldwin donespiritualmay The reason people think it's important to be white is that they think it's important not to be black. James A. Baldwin racismwhitethinking The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid: the state of being alone. James A. Baldwin being-alonecreativityart There are few things more dreadful than dealing with a man who knows he is going under, in his own eyes, and in the eyes of others. Nothing can help that man. What is left of that man flees from what is left of human attention. James A. Baldwin eyeattentionmen The writer's only real task: to recreate out of the disorder of life that order which is art James A. Baldwin realorderart A real writer is always shifting and changing and searching. James A. Baldwin shiftingreal There are, forever, swamps to be drained, cities to be created, mines to be exploited, children to be fed ... But the conquest of the physical world is not man’s only duty. He is also enjoined to conquer the great wilderness of himself. The precise role of the artist, then, is to illuminate that darkness, blaze roads through vast forests, so that we will not, in all our doing, lose sight of its purpose, which is, after all, to make the world a more human dwelling place. James A. Baldwin artistmenchildren I think white gay people feel cheated because they were born, in principle, in a society in which they were supposed to be safe. The anomaly of their sexuality puts them in danger, unexpectedly. James A. Baldwin gaywhitethinking Education is indoctrination if you're white - subjugation if you're black. James A. Baldwin whiteeducationschool
