Amity

“But, Cass, ask yourself, look out and ask yourself— wouldn’t you hate all white people if they kept you in prison here?” They were rolling up startling Seventh Avenue. The entire population seemed to be in the streets, draped, almost, from lampposts, stoops, and hydrants, and walking through the traffic as though it were not there. “Kept you here, and stunted you and starved you, and made you watch your mother and father and sister and lover and brother and son and daughter die or go mad or go under, before your very eyes? And not in a hurry, like from one day to the next, but, every day, every day, for years, for generations? Shit. They keep you here because you’re black, the filthy, white cock suckers, while they go around jerking themselves off with all that jazz about the land of the free and the home of the brave. And they want you to jerk yourself off with that same music, too, only, keep your distance. Some days, honey, I wish I could turn myself into one big fist and grind this miserable country to powder. Some days, I don’t believe it has a right to exist. Now, you’ve never felt like that, and Vivaldo’s never felt like that. Vivaldo didn’t want to know my brother was dying because he doesn’t want to know that my brother would still be alive if he hadn’t been born black.”
― James Baldwin, Another Country

“Then even his luggage belonged to him again, and he strode through the barriers, more high-hearted than he had ever been as a child, into that city which the people from heaven had made their home.”
― James Baldwin, Another Country

“Eric lit a cigarette, drew one foot up, and hugged one knee. ‘I mean, I think you’ve got to be truthful about the life you have. Otherwise, there’s no possibility of achieving the life you want.‘ He paused. ‘Or think you want.‘
‘Or,‘ said Vivaldo, after a moment,‘ ‘the life you think you should want.‘
‘The life you think you should want… is always the life that looks safest”
― James Baldwin, Another Country

“How's one going to get through it all?
How can you live if you can't love?
And how can you live if you do?”
― James Baldwin, Another Country