Americans, unhappily, have the most remarkable ability to alchemize all bitter truths into an innocuous but piquant confection and to transform their moral contradictions, or public discussion of such contradictions, into a proud decoration, such as are given for heroism on the field of battle.
James A. BaldwinYou have to decide who you are and force the world to deal with you, not with its idea of you.
James A. BaldwinI love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually. I think all theories are suspect, that the finest principles may have to be modified, or may even be pulverized by the demands of life, and that one must find, therefore, one's own moral center and move through the world hoping that this center will guide one aright.
James A. BaldwinIt is hard for anyone under twenty to realise that death has already assigned them a number, which is going to come up one day.
James A. Baldwin