James Baldwin

”There is an illusion about America, a
myth about America to which we are clinging which has nothing to do with the
lives we lead and I don’t believe that anybody in this country who has really
thought about it or really almost anybody who has been brought up against it —
and almost all of us have one way or another — this collision between one’s
image of oneself and what one actually is is always very painful and there are
two things you can do about it, you can meet the collision head-on and try and
become what you really are or you can retreat and try to remain what you
thought you were, which is a fantasy, in which you will certainly perish.”

- James Baldwin, “Notes for a Hypothetical Novel”