James Baldwin: Trending quotes (page 9)

“He was silent for a long while. Then: 'You do, sometimes, remind me of the kind of man who is tempted to put himself in prison in order to avoid being hit by a car.'”

James Baldwin book Giovanni's Room

Pt. 2, Ch. 3 - p.104
Giovanni's Room (1956)

“Maybe everything bad that happens to you makes you weaker, and so you can stand less and less.”

James Baldwin book Giovanni's Room

Pt. 2, Ch. 3 - p.97
Giovanni's Room (1956)

“One must say Yes to life, and embrace it wherever it is found — and it is found in terrible places. … For nothing is fixed, forever and forever, it is not fixed; the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock. Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have. The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.”

James Baldwin

From Nothing Personal, a collaboration with the photographer Richard Avedon (1964). Baldwin's text for the volume can be found " here https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1042&context=cibs".