James Baldwin

"The truth about that fire is known only to the Lord."

"Everything is changing and the new world that we have to have cannot be achieved unless we refuse to accept it."

"The heart of all that is real."

"The writer has to take the plunge."

"Economic necessity does not always produce happiness."

"The attempt to be free is the first thing that a man attempts."

"One goes through the world with a set of assumptions."

"A child cannot forgive his parents while he remains a child, while he remains in their power."

"The present moment, the now, is the bridge between past and future."

"The burden of being a dark-skinned man in this world."

"There is a great difference between approval and love."

"Understanding is a very dull occupation and very exhausting too."

"The tragedy is not that we are alone, but that we refuse to let ourselves be touched."

"The world is before you and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in."

"Beauty is achieved when an artist manages to transform the unbearable into the bearable."

"The trouble with the world is not that people know too little, but that they know so many things that are not so."

"One cannot be forever riding the momentum of the past."

"Religion is the set of attitudes with which men regard their existence and their universe."

"An artist must be willing to bear the consequences of his art."

"Love cannot soar if the beloved is pinned to the ground."

"Language is a political instrument."

"We perpetually arrived for a very long cocktail hour and no one had to do anything."

"The Southerner may be proud to speak of his ignorance, while the Northerner must conceal it."

"To be black and conscious in America is to be in a constant state of rage."

"Artists are here to disturb the peace."

"Every legend contains its residuum of fact."

"The impossible is our program."

"One cannot be freed by the same energy that enslaves."

"Real change in America will come by getting involved in your community."

"Nothing is given to man on earth, everything is sold."