James Baldwin livre Nobody Knows My Name
"In Search of a Majority: An Address" (Feb 1960); reprinted in Baldwin, "Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobody_Knows_My_Name (1961)
James Arthur Baldwin [ d͡ʒeɪmz ˈɑɹθɚ ˈbɒldwən], né le 2 août 1924 à Harlem, New York, et mort le 1er décembre 1987 à Saint-Paul-de-Vence, dans les Alpes-Maritimes, en France, est un écrivain américain, auteur de romans, de poésies, de nouvelles, de pièces de théâtre et d’essais. Son œuvre la plus connue est son premier roman, semi-autobiographique, intitulé La Conversion , paru en 1953, et sa nouvelle Blues pour Sonny incluse dans le recueil de nouvelles Face à l'homme blanc , paru en 1965.
Ses essais, rassemblés notamment dans Chronique d'un pays natal et La Prochaine Fois, le feu , explorent les non-dits et les tensions sous-jacentes autour des distinctions raciales, sexuelles et de classe au sein des sociétés occidentales, en particulier dans l'Amérique du milieu du XXe siècle. Ses romans et pièces de théâtre transposent quant à eux vers la fiction des dilemmes personnels, questionnant les pressions sociales et psychologiques complexes qui entravent non seulement l'intégration des personnes noires, mais aussi des hommes gays ou bisexuels. Il dépeint également les obstacles intériorisés qui empêchent de telles quêtes d'acceptation, par exemple dans son roman La Chambre de Giovanni , écrit en 1956, bien avant le mouvement de libération des homosexuels. Wikipedia

James Baldwin livre Nobody Knows My Name
"In Search of a Majority: An Address" (Feb 1960); reprinted in Baldwin, "Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobody_Knows_My_Name (1961)
James Baldwin livre The Fire Next Time
"Me and My House" in Harper's (November 1955); republished in Notes of a Native Son (1955)
Source: The Fire Next Time
"The Black Boy Looks at the White Boy" in Esquire (May 1961)
“Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition.”
James Baldwin livre Giovanni's Room
Source: Giovanni's Room
“Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
"As Much Truth As One Can Bear" in The New York Times Book Review (14 January 1962); republished in The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings (2011), edited by Randall Kenan<!-- , also quoted in Wisdom for the Soul : Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing (2006) by Larry Chang, p. 114 -->
Contexte: Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced. … Most of us are about as eager to change as we were to be born, and go through our changes in a similar state of shock.
Interview with Julius Lester, "James Baldwin: Reflections of a Maverick" http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwin-reflections.html in The New York Times (27 May 1984) <br class="br">Contexte: Perhaps I did not succumb to ideology … because I have never seen myself as a spokesman. I am a witness. In the church in which I was raised you were supposed to bear witness to the truth. Now, later on, you wonder what in the world the truth is, but you do know what a lie is.
“Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.”
"Fifth Avenue, Uptown: a Letter from Harlem" in Esquire (July 1960); republished in Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son (1961)
“Neither love nor terror makes one blind: indifference makes one blind.”
James Baldwin If Beale Street Could Talk
Source: If Beale Street Could Talk
Source: nothing personal
As quoted in "James Baldwin Back Home" http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwin-home.html by Robert Coles in The New York Times (31 July 1977)
"Letter from a Region of My Mind" in The New Yorker (17 November 1962); republished as "Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region in My Mind" in The Fire Next Time (1963)
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". <br class="br">Contexte: 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.
"Negroes Are Anti-Semitic Because They're Anti-White" http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwin-antisem.html in The New York Times (9 April 1967) <br class="br">Contexte: It is true that two wrongs don't make a right, as we love to point out to the people we have wronged. But one wrong doesn't make a right, either. People who have been wronged will attempt to right the wrong; they would not be people if they didn't. They can rarely afford to be scrupulous about the means they will use. They will use such means as come to hand. Neither, in the main, will they distinguish one oppressor from another, nor see through to the root principle of their oppression.
James Baldwin livre No Name in the Street
No Name in the Street (1972)
James Baldwin livre The Fire Next Time
Source: "Letter from a Region of My Mind" in The New Yorker (17 November 1962); republished as "Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region in My Mind" in The Fire Next Time (1963)
Contexte: If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him.
“Whoever debases others is debasing himself.”
James Baldwin livre The Fire Next Time
Source: The Fire Next Time
James Baldwin livre Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone
Source: Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone
James Baldwin livre Giovanni's Room
Source: Giovanni's Room
"If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?" http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwin-english.html in "The New York Times (29 July 1979)
"Letter from a Region of My Mind" in The New Yorker (17 November 1962); republished as "Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region in My Mind" in The Fire Next Time (1963)
