James Baldwin

I have never seen myself as a spokesman. I am a witness.

The wonder is not that so many are ruined but that so many survive.

Any writer, I suppose, feels that the world into which he was born is nothing less than a conspiracy against the cultivation of his talent.

Does the law exist for the purpose of furthering the ambitions of those who have sworn to uphold the law, or is it seriously to be considered as a moral, unifying force, the health and strength of a nation?

Ask the wretched how they fare in the halls of justice, and then you will know, not whether or not the country is just, but whether or not it has any love for justice, or any concept of it.

It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.

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.

Everything depends on how relentlessly one forces from experience the last drop, sweet or bitter, it can possibly give.

Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.