James A. Baldwin

Every legend, moreover, contains its residuum of truth, and the root function of language is to control the universe by describing it.

I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all.

People can cry much easier than they can change.

It's good to like yourself, and that only comes from hard work, from doing. But vanity is dangerous; it can trip you badly.

We define ourselves as intelligent. That's odd, because we're doing the definition - We're creating our own definition and saying, 'We are intelligent!'

It took me realizing that a broken heart has never actually killed anyone to find the courage to ask for what I want, in just about every situation. That was part of my own growing up.