People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.
James A. Baldwin

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 A. Baldwin

Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.
James A. Baldwin

The world is before you and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in.
James A. Baldwin

No one can possibly know what is about to happen: it is happening, each time, for the first time, for the only time.
James A. Baldwin

To act is to be committed, and to be committed is to be in danger.
James A. Baldwin

I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.
James A. Baldwin