“Most of us, no matter what we say, are walking in the dark, whistling in the dark. Nobody knows what is going to happen to him from one moment to the next, or how one will bear it. This is irreducible. And it's true of everybody. Now, it is true that the nature of society is to create, among its citizens, an illusion of safety; but it is also absolutely true that the safety is always necessarily an illusion. Artists are here to disturb the peace.”

— James Baldwin

"An interview with James Baldwin" (1961), in Conversations with James Baldwin, p. 21

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James Baldwin 163

(1924-1987) writer from the United States 1924–1987

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