James Baldwin

Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. - James Baldwin

Any writer, I suppose, feels that the world into which he was born is nothing less than a conspiracy against the cultivation of his talent. - James Baldwin

Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck - but, most of all, endurance. (quoted by Jordon Elgrably in Paris Review) - James Baldwin