“Life gives these and also takes them away and the great difficulty is to say Yes to life.”

— James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room, 1956

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.”

“The wise man will live as long as he ought, not as long as he can.”

“In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught; but in life there are many things to draw us aside.”

“The better part of valour is discretion; in the which better part I have saved my life.”

“So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”

“We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”

“Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage.”