“What the proprietorship of these papers is aiming at is power, and power without responsibility — the prerogative of the harlot through the ages.[Baldwin was attacking the leading press barons of his day (Lord Beaverbrook and Lord Rothermere); the phrase was suggested by Baldwin's cousin Rudyard Kipling (17 March 1931)]”

“Yet it is only when one is able, without bitterness or self-pity, to surrender a dream one has long cherished, or a privilege one has long possessed, that one is set free…that one has set oneself free, for higher dreams, for greater privileges. James Baldwin”

“A platitude is simply a truth repeated till people get tired of hearing it.”

“I would rather trust a woman's instinct than a man's reason.”

“War would end if the dead could return.”

“I would rather be an opportunist and float than go to the bottom with my principles around my neck.”

“The states of birth, suffering, love, and death, are extreme states: extreme, universal, and inescapable. We all know this, but we would rather not know it. The artist is present to correct the delusions to which we are all prey in our attempts to avoid this knowledge." - James Baldwin, "The Creative Process”