James Baldwin Quotes

You write in order to change the world, knowing perfectly well that you probably can't, but also knowing that literature is indispensable to the world... The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way... people look at reality, then you can change it.

I can't write about nice, easy topics because that won't change the world. And I do want to change the world - one reader at a time.

You write in order to change the world.

if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term weapon.

Art isn't supposed to change the world, but it can.

Language is power... Language can be used as a means of changing reality.

The way to mend the bad world is to create the right world.

No reality transforms itself.

I do believe there is enormous possibility to change this world.

Reality isn't what it used to be.

The reality is that changes are coming... They must come. You must share in bringing them.

Children can change the world.

Dare to change the world. There is nothing quixotic or romantic in wanting to change the world. It is possible. It is the age-old vocation of all humanity. I can't think of a better life than one dedicated to passion, to dreams, to the stubbornness that defies chaos and disillusionment.

When the first human began to read and write, he or she set the world upon a new evolution. Similarly, if a few individuals have the strength and the power to walk away from the restrictions of the world and to stand fearlessly beyond it, eventually, in some distant millennium, all mankind will also come to that same liberation.

Writing is like a little hole in reality that you can go through and you can get out and you can be someplace else for a while.

Men reform a thing by removing the reality from it, and then do not know what to do with the unreality that is left.

I have a magnificent obsession. All I want to do is change the world ...make it a better place for this and future generations.

There is such a thing as a general revolution which changes the taste of men as it changes the fortunes of the world.

One song isn't going to ever change things, but I suppose it's the accumulation of music generally [that is]. If you can imagine a world that has no music in it, it would be a very different world, so music does change the world by virtue of all the music in it. Cumulative music of every kind, from banging a drum to playing a flute or recording symphonies, or singing 'War, what is it good for?' All those things change the whole way we live.

If we would change the world, we must first change people's thoughts.

Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?

Sooner I'd try to change history than turn political, than try convincing others to write letters or to vote or to march or to do something they didn't already feel like doing.

Women need to become literary "criminals," break the literary laws and reinvent their own, because the established laws prevent women from presenting the reality of their lives.

If you want to change the world, you have to change the metaphor.

SETH said: There is nothing more stimulating, more worthy of actualization, than the desire to change the world for the better. That is indeed each person's mission. You begin by working in that area of activity that is your own unique one, with your own life and activities. You begin in the corner of an office, or on the assembly line, or in the advertising agency, or in the kitchen. You begin where you are.