[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.

The system gives you two minutes to phrase a whole history.

[James] Baldwin is needed even more today because he helps you focus to the essential, to what is important.

Over the years, he disappeared - like a lot of our leaders disappear. [James Baldwin] was not assassinated, but somehow he went through those assassinations as if it was himself. I think that broke him as well.

Face your reality. You, black or white, are not innocent anymore. Either you have the courage to face it or you will go down together with the whole idea of the American Dream.

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

[James] Baldwin "was one of greatest intellectuals of his time. He was an important voice, period, not an important black voice."