Best advice I ever got was an old friend mine, a black friend, who said you have to go the way your blood beats. If you don’t live the only life you have, you won’t live some other life, you won’t live any life at all.

More information about this quote

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Baldwin, James. Quoted in "Go the Way Your Blood Beats." Interviewed by Richard Goldstein. Village Voice, 26 June 1984.

Current Citation

Baldwin, James. "Go the Way Your Blood Beats." James Baldwin: The Last Interview and Other Interviews. Melville House, 2014.