In a Voice interview (1984) James Baldwin said:
[Richard] GOLDSTEIN: What advice would you give a gay man who's about to come out?
[James] BALDWIN: Coming out means to publicly say?
GOLDSTEIN: I guess I'm imposing these terms on you.
BALDWIN: Yeah, they're not my terms. But what advice can you possibly give? Best advice I ever got was an old friend of 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. That's the only advice you can give anybody. And it's not advice, it's an observation.