James Baldwin

"Artists are here to disturb the peace."

"If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving."

"The dreams of black men in this country are tied to the dreams of all men."

"It is a very particular pleasure to defeat a man's hatred by, simply, continuing to live."

"To understand is to stand under someone."

"Confusion is a luxury which only the very, very young can possibly afford."

"I had to understand, in some new way, what the word 'love' meant."

"The attempt to live like automatons, not to feel, not to respond, has cost us an enormous price."

"When you're white in this world, you're just left alone to be human."

"The truth about any people is not in their monuments but in the very cobblestones and in their laws."

"It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have."

"I came out of the church when I was seventeen years old and I haven't been back."

"Commitment may mean different things to different people."

"The artistic principle is salvation through transformation of trauma."

"America is not going to close ranks and everyone is not going to go along with the system."

"If we examine the language, then we see a poetry and we see the force of revelation."

"The only ally you've got is the person who is willing to risk as much as you are willing to risk."

"I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain."

"People who believe that they are powerless do not attempt to correct anything."

"All art is a kind of confession."

"Everything now, we must assume, is in our hands; we have no time for lamentations."

"I've always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come."

"Society is held together by our need; we need each other, and we need to believe that we need each other."

"One can only face in others what one can face in oneself."

"The poet (and I include the film-maker) is the priest of the invisible."

"The truth is, I have been trying to grasp the nature of a particular human being."

"Defend the helpless and speak for them, because they cannot speak for themselves."

"If you write, you must believe that what you're writing about is important, that the people you're writing about are important."

"I think we've got to understand that whatever we do now, it's going to determine the future of the human race."

"Hatred never stopped anything except the person who hates."