James Baldwin

You think your pains and heartbreaks are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who have ever been alive.

Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck -- but, most of all, endurance.

Know from whence you came. If you know whence you came, there are absolutely no limitations to where you can go.

The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions which have been hidden by the answers.

Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.

The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.

It is said that the camera cannot lie, but rarely do we allow it to do anything else, since the camera sees what you point it at: the camera sees what you want it to see.

- James Baldwin