This is the 3rd installment (out of 4) of quotes from James Baldwin’s short story, “Sonny’s Blues.”
“He hit something in all of them, he hit something in me, myself, and the music tightened and deepened, apprehension began to beat the air. Creole began to tell us what the blues were all about. They were not about anything very new. He and his boys up there were keeping it new, at the risk of ruin, destruction, madness, and death, in order to find new ways to make us listen. For, while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard. There isn’t any other tale to tell, it’s the only light we’ve got in all this darkness.”
Everyone suffers; everyone is happy at some point or another; everyone goes through periods of light and darkness. These are all inevitable conditions to humans. Regardless of how many times you go through ups and downs, or know someone who does, it’s a tale that must always be heard. Sometimes a person, a song, a moment or a band can give you new ways to open your mind, open your heart, and truly listen, truly understand.
Smile and Be Free 
“As plants are suffocated and drowned with too much moisture, and lamps with too much oil, so is the active part of the understanding with too much study.”
Great quote! I agree completely. Great literature tends to be ruined with too much analysis. That’s why I try to just type up the quote and not much else after. Let the literature speak for itself.