# Quote — James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room

> 'You think,' he persisted, 'that my life is shameful because my encounters are. And they are. But you should ask yourself why they are.'
>
> 'Why are they — shameful?' I asked him.
>
> 'Because there is no affection in them, and no joy. It's like putting an electric plug in a dead socket. Touch, but no contact. All touch, but no contact and no light.'

- Author: [James Baldwin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-baldwin.md)
- Book: [Giovanni's Room](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-baldwin/giovannis-room.md)
- Page: 49
- 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/you-think-he-persisted

## 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)