David Leeming's Biography of Baldwin, 2

Dogeared:

"Today's statistics tell us that fathers in David Baldwin's situjation often leave home. But Jimmy's stepfather did not leave home--he went mad." (5)

Countee Cullen's advice to Baldwin and all young writers: "Read and write--and wait." (29)

"What one can and cannot see 'says something about you.'" (35)

Baldwin's words: "I imagine that one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, that they will be forced to deal with pain." (41)

Baldwin again: "I'm not really interested in being what Americans call 'happy.'" (112)

Baldwin comes to believe, apparently (I don't believe he believed it), that "The public man was the same as the private one; the view of reality that determines how one behaves in the bedroom also 'dictates one's behavior in the office.'" (252)

Baldwin's claims to be "a lover and therefore an optimist...the trick is to love somebody.... If you love one person, you see everybody else differently." (329)

Baldwin, during an interview with Maya Angelou, says, "A writer can never be a success." (334)

Leeming: "To him education meant the coruage to ask questions, to confront the dominant priorities, and to challenge them." (340)

Leeming describes Baldwin's concerns on his deathbed: "During the night he wanted to talk about religion. He realized that the church's role in his life had been significant, especially with respect to what he called his 'inner vocabulary.'" (384)