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 a terrifying thing to be perhaps 16 or 17 and feel like you are a failure and a has-been.

Discontent with this world gives such a painful longing to quit it that, if the heart finds comfort, it is solely from the thought that God wishes it to remain here in banishment.

Another thing that freaks me out is time. Time is like a book. You have a beginning, a middle and an end. It's just a cycle.