Life 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. BaldwinWell,โ I said, โParis is old, is many centuries. You feel, in Paris, all the time gone by. That isnโt what you feel in New York โ โHe was smiling. I stopped. โWhat do you feel in New York?โ he asked. โPerhaps you feel,โ I told him, โall the time to come. Thereโs such power there, everything is in such movement. You canโt help wonderingโI canโt help wonderingโwhat it will all be likeโ many years from now.
James A. BaldwinThere are, forever, swamps to be drained, cities to be created, mines to be exploited, children to be fed ... But the conquest of the physical world is not manโs only duty. He is also enjoined to conquer the great wilderness of himself. The precise role of the artist, then, is to illuminate that darkness, blaze roads through vast forests, so that we will not, in all our doing, lose sight of its purpose, which is, after all, to make the world a more human dwelling place.
James A. BaldwinBut, when the chips are down, its better to be furious with someone you love, or frightened for someone you love, than be put through the merciless horror of being ashamed of someone you love.
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. BaldwinI thought of the people before me who had looked down at the river and gone to sleep beneath it. I wondered about them. I wondered how they had done it--it, the physical act. I simply wondered about the dead because their days had ended and I did not know how I would get through mine.
James A. Baldwin