Baldwin Quotes & Sayings

There they stood, in twos and threes and fours, in their Cub Scout uniforms and with their Cub Scout faces, totally unprepared, as is the way with American he-men, for anything that could not be settled with a club or a fist or a gun. — James Baldwin

When I do scenes with Alec Baldwin, he just stares at my boobs. That's how good of an actor he is, he finds a way. — Jane Krakowski

The making of an American begins at the point where he himself rejects all other ties, any other history, and himself adopts the vesture of his adopted land. — James Baldwin

I kept finding the same anguish, the same doubt; a self-contempt that neither irony nor intellect seemed able to deflect. Even DuBois's learning and Baldwin's love and Langston's humor eventually succumbed to its corrosive force, each man finally forced to doubt art's redemptive power, each man finally forced to withdraw, one to Africa, one to Europe, one deeper into the bowels of Harlem, but all of them in the same weary flight, all of them exhausted, bitter men, the devil at their heels. — Barack Obama

Observing that, from this height, the city which had been so dark as he walked through it seemed to be on fire. — James Baldwin

Barack Obama is clearly a smart guy, talented. — Stephen Baldwin

I'm walking this walk, and my life has nothing to do with my perception of the world. It's all God! How do I function within His plan? — Stephen Baldwin

You cannot fix what you will not face. — James A. Baldwin

The price of the liberation of the white people is the liberation of the blacks - the total liberation, in the cities, in the towns, before the law, and in the mind. — James Baldwin

The determination to outwit one's situation means that one has no models, only object lessons. — James A. Baldwin

It is not too much to say that whoever wishes to become a truly moral human being (and let us not ask whether or not this is possible; I think we must believe that it is possible) must first divorce himself from all the prohibitions, crimes, and hypocrisies of the Christian church. If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him. I — James Baldwin

Getting movies made is not as difficult as people think. Making movies is easy. You get a script, you get a director, you raise the money, you make the movie. — Stephen Baldwin

I'm not much of a jokester. — Adam Baldwin

Alec Baldwin is so funny. — Ryan Lochte

Identity would seem to be the garment with which one covers the nakedness of the self: in which case, it is best that the garment be loose, a little like the robes of the desert, through which one's nakedness can always be felt, and, sometimes, discerned. This trust in one's nakedness is all that gives one the power to change one's robes. — James Baldwin

We can't allow, in my perception, our traditions, which in the Bible are really looked down upon, to stop, literally, the potential of the gospel reaching the youth of America. — Stephen Baldwin

It seems to me that one ought to rejoice in the fact of death
ought to decide, indeed, to earn one's death by confronting with passion the conundrum of life. One is responsible to life: It is the small beacon in that terrifying darkness from which we come and to which we shall return. One must negotiate this passage as nobly as possible, for the sake of those who are coming after us. — James Baldwin

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 — James Baldwin

Giovanni had awakened an itch, had released a gnaw in me. I realized it one afternoon, when I was taking him to work via the Boulevard Montparnasse. We had bought a kilo of cherries and we were eating them as we walked along. We were both insufferably childish and high-spirited that afternoon and the spectacle we presented, two grown men jostling each other on the wide sidewalk and aiming the cherry pits, as though they were spitballs, into each other's faces, must have been outrageous. And I realized that such childishness was fantastic at my age and the happiness out of which it sprang yet more so; for that moment I really loved Giovanni, who had never seemed more beautiful than he was that afternoon. — James Baldwin

We've got to be as clear-headed about human beings as possible, because we are still each other's only hope. — James Baldwin

You have actors who begin at a certain young age and there's very little change in their technique and the depth of their performances; they're the same 30 years later. — Alec Baldwin

The question of identity is a question involving the most profound panic - a terror as primary as the nightmare of the mortal fall. — James Baldwin

Doing these parts is not fun. It's challenging, but no fun. It's creepy. I would rather play the guy that throws the touchdown pass and gets carried off the field. — Alec Baldwin

Somebody," said Jacques, "your father or mine, should have told us that not many people have ever died of love. But multitudes have perished, and are perishing every hour - and in the oddest places! - for the lack of it. — James Baldwin

(I)f France's righteous bloviating against war makes them your Dashboard Saint of International Integrity, it's either because you are sand-poundingly ignorant of how the world works or it's because you think France's self-interest is more important than America's. If the former applies to you, read a book. If it's the latter, maybe you should move there along with Alec Baldwin, Robert Altman, and the rest of the crowd who promised to leave a long time ago. But whatever you do, don't call France's position principled, because that just insults us both. — Jonah Goldberg

I think it's really terrifying that a country based on the foundations and ideals of God, is now systematically removing God from everything. Everything! — Stephen Baldwin

I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain. — James Baldwin

What hard evidence is there that Obama doesn't want ebola in America? — Adam Baldwin

When you're with someone, you want everything to be great. And that's the pressure that you put on, and what you just can't do. — Alec Baldwin

It was as though I were yelling up to Heaven and Heaven would not hear me. And if Heaven would not hear me- to wash me, to make me clean- then utter disaster was my portion. — James Baldwin

Acceptance is a far better word and denotes a more positive attitude than resignation; I've always known that, but in recent days I've found one which is better still; it is consent. — Faith Baldwin

There's the person that's the addict, and then there's the person that's who you are. — Daniel Baldwin

Precisely at the point when you begin to develop a conscience you must find yourself at war with your society. — James Baldwin

Raised Roman Catholic up until 11 or 12, didn't stick. Went out into the world and did my own thing. — Stephen Baldwin

The relationship between a client must be 'we.' — Billy Baldwin

I'm not an awards-driven person in anything. Anytime you do get caught up in that, you usually end up getting whacked. — Alec Baldwin

The bomber will always get through. The only defense is in offense, which means that you have to kill more women and children more quickly that the enemy if you want to save yourselves. — Stanley Baldwin

When white supremacy becomes institutional, it begins to harm the very people who are not simply outside of it because of their race, it begins to harm the folk who look like the folk who want to be in charge. Martin Luther King, Jr., understood this, Malcolm X understood this, James Baldwin really understood this. — Michael Eric Dyson

Do I really want to be integrated into a burning house? — James Baldwin

You go into a book and you're in the dark, really. You go in with a certain fear and trembling. You know one thing. You know you will not be the same person when this voyage is over. But you don't know what's going to happen to you between getting on the boat and stepping off. — James A. Baldwin

I was 23 when I learned how to cook; I grew up around the same time. It was precisely then that Thanksgiving started to mean something more. Growing up, Christmas was always about me, and eventually you, when I finally started to enjoy the giving part. But Thanksgiving is always about us. — Rosecrans Baldwin

If we do not now dare everything, the fulfillment of that prophecy, re-created from the Bible in song by a slave, is upon us: God gave Noah the rainbow sign. No more water, fire next time. — James A. Baldwin

I had never before thought of how awful the relationship must be between the musician and his instrument. He has to fill it, this instrument, with the breath of life, his own. He has to make it do what he wants it to do. And a piano is just a piano. It's made out of so much wood and wires and little hammers and big ones, and ivory. While there's only so much you can do with it, the only way to find this out is to try; to try and make it do everything. — James Baldwin

In Socrates' thought the two marks of individual self-consciousness appear; it is practical and it is social. — James Mark Baldwin

real difficulty comes when we are doing something that we don't want to be doing. For example, if we must work when we want to be home, or if we are staying home when it is driving us crazy, then our parenting will tend to be influenced by guilt, resentment, and a whole range of other negative emotions. We need to make our best choices at each moment. We can't always have what we feel would be ideal, but we can actively do the best with the options as we see them. — Rahima Baldwin Dancy

Time is always now. Everybody who has ever thought about his own life knows this. You don't make resolutions about something you are going to do next year. No! You decide to write a book: the book may be finished twenty years from now, but you've got to start it now. — James Baldwin

I want to be an inspirational model. I want people to look at me and say, 'Wow, she looks healthy.' — Ireland Baldwin

Not a thousand years ago, it was illegal to teach a slave to read. Not a thousand years ago, the Supreme Court decided that separate could not be equal. And today, as we sit here, no one is learning anything in this country. You see a nation which is the leader of the rest of the world, that had to pay the price of that ticket, and the price of that ticket is we're sitting in the most illiterate nation in the world. THE MOST ILLITERATE NATION IN THE WORLD. A monument to illiteracy. And if you doubt me, all you have to do is spend a day in Washington. I am serious as a heart attack. — James Baldwin

It is almost superfluous to say that there is no such thing as a free and independent press among the mainstream news media today. In fact, the major media more resembles a propaganda machine than it does a free press. — Chuck Baldwin

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

If you think of them as dirty, then they will be dirty- they will be dirty because you will be giving nothing — James Baldwin

But the Negro's experience of the white world cannot possibly create in him any respect for the standards by which the white world claims to live. — James Baldwin

It is a terrible, an inexorable law that one cannot deny the humanity of another without diminishing one's own: in the face of one's victim, one sees oneself. — James A. Baldwin

But it's not possible to forget anybody you were that hung up on, who was that hung up on you. You can't forget anything that hurt so badly, went so deep, and changed the world forever. It's not possible to forget anybody you've destroyed. — James Baldwin

An identity would seem to be arrived at by the way in which the person faces and uses his experience. — James Baldwin

Heads of France lead from a palace, and traditionally they retire to a cloud. — Rosecrans Baldwin

Everybody's journey is individual. If you fall in love with a boy, you fall in love with a boy. The fact that many Americans consider it a disease says more about them than it does about homosexuality. — James Baldwin

If the relationship of father to son could really be reduced to biology, the whole earth would blaze with the glory of fathers and sons. — James A. Baldwin

I was very competitive with my brothers when I was younger. Now we are all in completely different worlds. Im not in direct competition with my brothers for anything, ever. Stephen and I and Billy and I are better at staying in touch with each other. Danny is married, he has a new baby and he is very peripatetic, he goes to golfing tournaments and charity things. He really travels a lot. — Alec Baldwin

Oh, Doctor, if you need a real good woman, you won't find a better lady than our teacher." "That so?" "Yep. Teacher . . . well, she really cares for us. And I just know she'd make a great ma someday." "Thank you, son." The boy nodded solemnly, as if he'd just done Eli the greatest of favors. Dr. Baldwin coughed. And once the boys were gone, Eli turned to look at his old friend. "What?" "Oh, nothing. — Jody Hedlund

Remember, sex is like a Chinese dinner. It ain't over 'til you both get your cookie. — Alec Baldwin

Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins. Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but, most of all, endurance. — James A. Baldwin

But what was the point, the purpose, of my salvation if it did not permit me to behave with love toward others, no matter how they behaved toward me? What others did was their responsibility, for which they would answer when the judgment trumpet sounded. — James Baldwin

Let's face facts, this is visual medium, there's a very high premium put on people who are good-looking. But the minute you rely on that you get yourself in trouble. You certainly don't make a career out of that anymore as an actor. — Alec Baldwin

If you ask me if I think I will be sober in 24 hours time I can say yes, but in two years I can't tell you. I could be dead. — Daniel Baldwin

My mother still has a three-step system to eating candy corn. First she eats the white tip, then the orange middle, then the yellow end. She swears each segment tastes different. — Rosecrans Baldwin

Acting is my career and activism is my passionate hobby. But acting is my livelihood. — William Baldwin

Anyway, I have long had a very definite tendency to tune out the moment I come anywhere near either a pulpit or a soapbox. — James Baldwin

I believe in the spiritual warfare. There are people who pick sides. The lord of this world is Satan. You can do a deal with him to have all the pleasures of this world. You can go to youtube and search Illuminati, and you'll see stuff you wouldn't believe about very famous musicians and their musicians that are very clearly Satanic images. — Stephen Baldwin

The wretched of the earth do not decide to become extinct, they resolve, on the contrary, to multiply: life is their weapon against life, life is all that they have. — James A. Baldwin

Baldwin told the story again and again of standing on Broadway and being told by Delaney to look down. Delaney asked him what he saw, and Baldwin said a puddle. Delaney said, 'Look again,' and then Baldwin saw the reflections of the buildings, distorted and radiant in the oil on the puddle. He taught me to see, Baldwin said, and that 'what one cannot or will not see, says something about you. — Rachel Cohen

But that battered word, truth, having made its appearance here, confronts one immediately with a series of riddles and has, moreover, since so many gospels are preached, the unfortunate tendency to make one belligerent. — James Baldwin

We've had some really good guest stars. But I have to go with Alec Baldwin as my favorite. He is so neat and such a movie star. He's handsome and quirky. I was in heaven the week he was on the set. — Nikki Cox

Afro-Americans. Which is but a wedding, however, of two confusions, an arbitrary linking of two undefined and currently undefinable proper nouns. I mean that, in the case of Africa, Africa is still chained to Europe, and exploited by Europe, and Europe and America are chained together; and as long as this is so, it is hard to speak of Africa except as a cradle and a potential. Not until the many millions of people on the continent of Africa control their land and their resources will the African personality flower or genuinely African institutions flourish and reveal Africa as she is. — James Baldwin

When my fingers began, involuntarily, to loose their hold on Hella, I realized that I was dangling from a high place and that I had been clinging to her for my very life. With each moment, as my fingers slipped, I felt the roaring air beneath me and felt everything in me bitterly contracting, crawling furiously upward against that long fall. — James Baldwin

Without allegiance to the Constitution it doesn't matter one hill of beans which party is in power! — Chuck Baldwin

People don't have any mercy. They tear you limb from limb, in the name of love. Then, when you're dead, when they've killed you by what they made you go through, they say you didn't have any character. They weep big, bitter tears - not for you. For themselves, because they've lost their toy. — James Baldwin

I think white gay people feel cheated because they were born, in principle, in a society in which they were supposed to be safe. The anomaly of their sexuality puts them in danger, unexpectedly. — James A. Baldwin

Employment is my right my destiny. — James A. Baldwin

I just love Rome. It really does cast a spell on you. — Alec Baldwin

Our desires teach us who we are and who we want to become. Our desires shape our stories. — Christina Baldwin

I've known a lot of alleged failures in my time and many of them, in losing what the world has always considered success, have achieved in facing up to failure, more than they ever achieved when they were considered successful. — Faith Baldwin

And her mother still struggled in these white kitchens in town, humming sweet hymns, tiny, mild eyed and bent, her father still labored on the oyster boats; after a lifetime of labor, should they drop dead tomorrow, there would not be a penny for their burial clothes. — James Baldwin

Whether in private debate or in public, any attempt I made to explain how the Black Muslim movement came about, and how it has achieved such force, was met with a blankness that revealed the little connection that the liberals' attitudes have with their perceptions or their lives, or even their knowledge - revealed, in fact, that they could deal with the Negro as a symbol or a victim but had no sense of him as a man. — James Baldwin

According to God's word, everybody at some point is going to be given the opportunity to know the truth. — Stephen Baldwin

They knew that no one heard, that bloodless people cannot be made to bleed. So they blew what everyone had heard before, they reassured everyone that nothing terrible was happening. — James Baldwin

Perhaps, as we say in America, I wanted to find myself. This is an interesting phrase, not current as far as I know in the language of any other people, which certainly does not mean what it says but betrays a nagging suspicion that something has been misplaced. I think now that if I had any intimation that the self I was going to find would turn out to be only the same self from which I had spent so much time in flight, I would have stayed at home. — James Baldwin

Time was made for slaves. — John Baldwin Buckstone

But there were women in the world, and from them each of our heroes had taken to himself a wife. The good ladies were no strangers to the prowess of their husbands. and, strange as it may seem, they presumed a little upon it. — Augustus Baldwin Longstreet

The closest I ever came to a near death experience was living in LA. — Deirdra Baldwin

Hatred destroys the person who hates. — James A. Baldwin

To be liberated from the stigma of blackness by embracing it is to cease, forever, one's interior argument and collaboration with the authors of one's degradation. It abruptly reduces the white enemy to a contest merely physical, which he can win only physically. — James Baldwin

Machismo requires Latin blood. I'd say I never experienced machismo up close until I worked in a French office; the typical Wall Street gunner has the soul of a coffee filter in comparison. — Rosecrans Baldwin

I suppose if the offending paparazzi was wearing a hoodie and I shot him, it would all blow over. — Alec Baldwin

People are full of surprise, even for themselves, if they have been stirred enough. — James Baldwin

I always did think that when I turned 40, I'd start coming into my own. — Adam Baldwin

Trust life, and it will teach you, in joy and sorrow, all you need to know. — James Baldwin

You have to decide who you are and force the world to deal with you, not with its idea of you. — James A. Baldwin

The trick is to love somebody ... If you love one person, you see everybody else differently. — James A. Baldwin

Only the broken heart has the ghost of a chance to grieve, to forgive, to long, to transform.
Christina Baldwin, author of Life's Companion, Journal Writing as a Spiritual Practice, 1990. Used with author's permission — Judith-Victoria Douglas