The occurrence of an event is not the same thing as knowing what it is that one has lived through. Most people had not lived -- nor could it, for that matter, be said that they had died-- through any of their terrible events. They had simply been stunned by the hammer. They passed their lives thereafter in a kind of limbo of denied and unexamined pain. The great question that faced him this morning was whether or not had had ever, really, been present at his life.
James A. BaldwinIf I could make you stay, I would,โ he shouted. โIf I had to beat you, chain you, starve youโif I could make you stay, I would.โ He turned back into the room; the wind blew his hair. He shook his finger at me, grotesquely playful. โOne day, perhaps, you will wish I had.
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. BaldwinLife is tragic simply because the earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time.
James A. BaldwinMoney, it turned out, was exactly like sex, you thought of nothing else if you didn't have it and thought of other things if you did.
James A. BaldwinMost of us, no matter what we say, are walking in the dark, whistling in the dark. Nobody knows what is going to happen to him from one moment to the next, or how one will bear it. This is irreducible. And it's true of everybody. Now, it is true that the nature of society is to create, among its citizens, an illusion of safety; but it is also absolutely true that the safety is always necessarily an illusion. Artists are here to disturb the peace.
James A. Baldwin