All of us know, whether or not we are able to admit it, that mirrors can only lie, that death by drowning is all that awaits one there. It is for this reason that love is so desperately sought and so cunningly avoided. Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.
James A. BaldwinA society must assume that it is stable, but the artist must know, and he must let us know, that there is nothing stable under heaven.
James A. BaldwinRecognizing a problem doesn't always bring a solution, but until we recognize that problem, there can be no solution.
James A. BaldwinOne writes out of one thing only - one's own experience. Everything depends on how relentlessly one forces from this experience the last drop, sweet or bitter, it can possibly give. This is the only real concern of the artist, to recreate out of the disorder of life that order which is art.
James A. BaldwinThis is the charged, the dangerous moment, when everything must be re-examined, must be made new, when nothing at all can be taken for granted.
James A. Baldwin