The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions that have been hidden by the answers.
James A. BaldwinThe paradox of education is precisely this - that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.
James A. BaldwinNot only was I not born to be a slave; I was not born to hope to become the equal of the slave master.
James A. BaldwinThe greatest significance of the present student generation is that it is through them that the point of view of the subjugated is finally and inexorably being expressed.
James A. BaldwinThe victim who is able to articulate the situation of the victim has ceased to be a victim: he or she has become a threat.
James A. BaldwinThe civilized have created the wretched, quite coldly and deliberately, and do not intend to change the status quo; are responsible for their slaughter and enslavement; rain down bombs on defenseless children whenever and wherever they decide that their "vital interests" are menaced, and think nothing of torturing a man to death: these people are not to be taken seriously when they speak of the "sanctity" of human life, or the "conscience" of the civilized world.
James A. Baldwin