“Art would not be important if life were not important, and life is important.”

— James Baldwin, Interview with Studs Terkel, 1961

About James Baldwin

1924 – 1987

American novelist and essayist, author of "Notes of a Native Son".

“Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

“This is the only real concern of the artist, to recreate out of the disorder of life that order which is art.”

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

“Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.”

“The great moral teachers of humanity were, in a way, artistic geniuses in the art of living.”

“Art is long, life short, judgment difficult, opportunity transient.”

“At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it.”

“I know of nothing useful in life except what is beautiful or creates beauty.”

“Life is earnest, art is gay.”