At bottom, to be colored means that one has been caught in some utterly unbelievable cosmic joke, a joke so hideous and in such bad taste that it defeats all categories and definitions.
JAMES A. BALDWINFor these are all our children, we will all profit by or pay for whatthey become.
More James A. Baldwin Quotes
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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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Drive to the heart of every answer and expose the question the answer hides.
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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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… every human being is an unprecedented miracle.
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Artists are here to disturb the peace.
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A devotion to humanity is… too easily equated with a devotion to a Cause, and Causes, as we know, are notoriously bloodthirsty.
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I met a lot of people in Europe. I even encountered myself.
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You write in order to change the world.
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I think Americans are terrified of feeling anything. I never met a people more infantile in my life.
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It is very nearly impossible… to become an educated person in a country so distrustful of the independent mind.
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Life is more important than art; that’s what makes art important.
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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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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.
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You have to decide who you are and force the world to deal with you, not with its idea of you.
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The determination to outwit one’s situation means that one has no models, only object lessons.
JAMES A. BALDWIN