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If Beale Street Could Talk

Book by James Baldwin · 11 quotes · Laughter, Love, People

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If Beale Street Could Talk Quotes

“She knows Daddy better than I do. I think it's because she's felt since we were children that our Daddy maybe loved me more than he loves her. This isn't true, and she knows that now--people love different people in different ways--but it must have seemed that way to her when we were little. I look as though I just can't make it, she looks like can't nothing stop her. If you look helpless, people react to you in one way and if you look strong, or just come on strong, people react to you in another way, and, since you don't see what they see, this can be very painful. I think that's why Sis was always in front of that damn mirror all the time, when we were kids. She was saying, 'I don't care. I got me.' Of course, this only made her come on stronger than ever, which was the last effect she desired: but that's the way we are and that's how we can sometimes get so fucked up. Anyway, she's past all that. She knows who she is, or, at least, she knows who she damn well isn't.”

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“Quando due persone si amano, quando si amano davvero, tutto quello che succede tra loro ha qualcosa di rituale. Certe volte può sembrare che vengano separati uno dall’altro: non conosco nessun maggior tormento, nessun vuoto più fragoroso – Quando il tuo amante è andato via! Ma quella sera, con i nostri voti così misteriosamente minacciati ed entrambi, sia pure da angoli diversi, messi di fronte a questo fatto, eravamo più profondamente uniti di quanto fossimo mai stati.”

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“That cop," Fonny says, "that cop." "What about that cop?" But I am suddenly, and I don't know why, as still and as dry as a stone: with fear. "He's going to try to get me," Fonny says. "How? You didn't do anything wrong. The Italian lady said so, and she said that she would swear to it." "That's why he's going to try to get me," Fonny says. "White men don't like it at all when a white lady tells them, You a boatful of motherfuckers, and the black cat was right, and you can kiss my ass." He grins. "Because that's what she told him. In front of a whole lot of people. And he couldn't do shit. And he ain't about to forget it.”

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