Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.
— James Baldwin
I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.
— James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
Know from whence you came. If you know whence you came, there are absolutely no limitations to where you can go.
— James Baldwin
Freedom is not something that anybody can be given. Freedom is something people take, and people are as free as they want to be
— James Baldwin
Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition.
— James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room
Passion is not friendly. It is arrogant,
superbly contemptuous of all that is not
itself, and, as they very definition of passion
implies the impulse to freedom, it has a might
intimidiating power. It contains a challenge.
It contains an unspeakable hope.
— James Baldwin
