Top 42 Quotes by Amiri Baraka

About Amiri Baraka

These are some quotes by American author Amiri Baraka Poet, who lived between October 7, 1934 and January 9, 2014.

America is as much a black country as a white one. The lives and destinies of the white American are bound up inextricably with those of the black American.

America is as much a black country as a white one. The lives and destinies of the white American are bound up inextricably with those of the black American.

Amiri Baraka

Jimmy Baldwin was not only a writer, an international literary figure: he was a man, spirit, voice - old and black and terrible as that first ancestor.

Jimmy Baldwin was not only a writer, an international literary figure: he was a man, spirit, voice - old and black and terrible as that first ancestor.

Amiri Baraka

You can't be an American without being related to other Americans.

You can't be an American without being related to other Americans.

Amiri Baraka

Thought is more important than art. To revere art and have no understanding of the process that forces it into existence, is finally not even to understand what art is.

Thought is more important than art. To revere art and have no understanding of the process that forces it into existence, is finally not even to understand what art is.

Amiri Baraka

My bohemianism consisted of not wanting to get involved with the stupid stuff that I thought people wanted you to get involved with... namely America... Dwight Eisenhower, McCarthyism and all those great things.

Amiri Baraka

As a political artist, I think you have to learn how to create art, no matter what your ideology is.

As a political artist, I think you have to learn how to create art, no matter what your ideology is.

Amiri Baraka

My own thinking has evolved. You find Africanisms in American speech. You find an African influence on United States culture. There are all kinds of Africanisms in America, as you would expect, if you really thought about it... That whole thing is much broader; the influence is much broader than I first understood.

Amiri Baraka

I was Everett LeRoi Jones. My grandfather's name was Everett.

I was Everett LeRoi Jones. My grandfather's name was Everett.

Amiri Baraka

The black artist's role in America is to aid in the destruction of America as he knows it.

The black artist's role in America is to aid in the destruction of America as he knows it.

Amiri Baraka

Alas, we have not yet the power to render completely sterile or make impossible the errors and lies which will merely be America being itself rather than its unconvincing promise.

Alas, we have not yet the power to render completely sterile or make impossible the errors and lies which will merely be America being itself rather than its unconvincing promise.

Amiri Baraka

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