In 1963, the writer James Baldwin was the subject of a profile in LIFE magazine, in which he observed, “You think your pain and heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “James Baldwin Quote”
In 1963, a writer for Life magazine profiled James Baldwin.
There’s a comment in there that Baldwin made that has really stuck with me.
He said, you think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.
It was Dostoevsky and Dickens who taught me that the things that tormented me the most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive or whoever had been alive.
Isn’t that the truth?
It is the truth.
You think that you’re suffering alone and you realize that we’re all suffering in similar ways.
Yeah, great reason to read, right?
There was another phrase that he used in this Life magazine profile that I found fascinating.
I did a little bit of digging on it.
He said, fame can lead to just as many disasters as poverty.
Since I got to my grits, I mean, since I’ve had enough to eat around two years ago, I’ve been as lonely as I ever was in my life.
And that expression, since I got to my grits, have you ever heard that?
No, I haven’t, but it makes sense to me.
Yeah, yeah, you finally get to where you can support yourself or whatever.
And that’s a phrase that’s been around.
Not just money.
Gillespie used it.
Not just money, but real money.
Just your sustenance, I think.
Just sustenance, right, I see.
No longer struggling.
Yeah, yeah. There was an old song called Trying to Get to My Grits.
Trying to get to my grits.
Yeah.
Trying to make enough to get by.
Exactly. 877-929-9673.
