The wretched of the earth do not decide to become extinct, they resolve, on the contrary, to multiply: life is their weapon against life, life is all that they have.
JAMES A. BALDWINThe writer’s only real task: to recreate out of the disorder of life that order which is art
More James A. Baldwin Quotes
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You write in order to change the world.
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At four o’clock in the morning, when everyone is drunk enough, then extraordinary things can happen.
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You think your pains and heartbreaks are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. [and then you discover that others have suffered much more than you and your problems look good in comparison]
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You have to go the way your blood beats. If you don’t live the only life you have, you won’t live some other life, you won’t live any life at all.
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And I was yet aware that this was only a moment, that the world waited outside, as hungry as a tiger, and that trouble stretched above us, longer than the sky.
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The world is before you, and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in.
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Remember, to hate, to be violent, is demeaning. It means you’re afraid of the other side of the coin — to love and be loved.
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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.
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The male cannot bear very much humiliation; and he really cannot bear it, it obliterates him.
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You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.
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A man’s balance depends on the weight he carries between his legs.
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Life is more important than art; that’s what makes art important.
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Hatred destroys the person who hates.
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Artists are here to disturb the peace.
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The writer’s greed is appalling. He wants, or seems to want, everything and practically everybody, in another sense, and at the same time, he needs no one at all.
JAMES A. BALDWIN