# Quote — James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room

> But people can't, unhappily, invent their mooring posts, their lovers and their friends, anymore than they can invent their parents. Life gives these and also takes them away and the great difficulty is to say Yes to life.

- Author: [James Baldwin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-baldwin.md)
- Book: [Giovanni's Room](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-baldwin/giovannis-room.md)
- Page: 4
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Baldwin#Giovanni's_Room_(1956)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-baldwin/giovannis-room/but-people-cant

## More from this book

> I shall never be able to have any more of these boyish, zestful affairs — which are, really, when one thinks about it, a kind of higher, or, anyway, more pretentious masturbation. People are too various to be treated so lightly.

p. 5 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-baldwin/giovannis-room/i-shall-never.md)

> She is smiling and her eyes are kind but now the smile is purely social

p. 62 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-baldwin/giovannis-room/she-is-smiling.md)

> Nothing is more unbearable, once one has it, than freedom.

p. 5 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-baldwin/giovannis-room/nothing-is-more.md)