Today, I don't even think that people like [James Baldwin] are possible. He would not have that much room.

Today, I don't even think that people like [James Baldwin] are possible. He would not have that much room.

The role James Baldwin played in my life is incommensurable as stated above. He helped, along with a few others, to shape the man that I am today. My debt to him is invaluable.

Just try to be yourself and resist complacency and ignorance. All you can do is work, work; work and be disciplined.

I think that James Baldwin is, for sure, one of the most important American writer/thinkers of his time... not just African-American. He singled-handily revolutionized the political, artistic and historical discourses about America. He created his particular and original language.

There are only one or two geniuses every century.

[James] Baldwin was a celebrity. A TV show like Kenneth Clark could put him aside of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. He was, at least, one of the three most important spokesmen of the movement and of the black community.