22 James Baldwin Quotes on Life, Literature, and Prejudice

22 James Baldwin Quotes on Life, Literature, and Prejudice:

whilereadingandwalking:

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read,” James Baldwin said in 1963 in an interview for LIFE Magazine. There are so many perfect James Baldwin quotes about everything from writing to America that it was difficult to fit them into one post.

The American novelist, social critic, and essayist wrote about race, homosexuality, writing, history, and more in his non-fiction—his most famous works including essay collection Notes of a Native Son and long essay and letter to his nephew, The Fire Next Time. Baldwin fictionalized the lives of gay and bisexual African American men in his novels and plays such as Go Tell It On the Mountain and Giovanni’s Room, as well as exploring the urban life of Black Americans in Another Country.

Baldwin lived most of his life after the age of 24 in Paris, disillusioned by American racism and homophobia and hoping to write outside of what seemed like a limiting African-American context. He is one of America’s most important exile writers, and one of its most thoughtful critics.