— James Baldwin, book The Fire Next Time
"Me and My House" in Harper's (November 1955); republished in Notes of a Native Son (1955)
Source: The Fire Next Time
Quotes from bookThe Fire Next Time
The Fire Next Time is a 1963 non-fiction book by James Baldwin. It contains two essays: "My Dungeon Shook — Letter to my Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation," and "Down At The Cross — Letter from a Region of My Mind." The first essay, written in the form of a letter to Baldwin's 14-year-old nephew, discusses the central role of race in American history. The second essay deals with the relations between race and religion, focusing in particular on Baldwin's experiences with the Christian church as a youth, as well as the Islamic ideas of others in Harlem.
— James Baldwin, book The Fire Next Time
Source: "Letter from a Region of My Mind" in The New Yorker (17 November 1962); republished as "Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region in My Mind" in The Fire Next Time (1963)
Context: If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him.
— James Baldwin, book The Fire Next Time
Variant: To accept one’s past – one’s history – is not the same thing as drowning in it; it is learning how to use it. An invented past can never be used; it cracks and crumbles under the pressures of life like clay in a season of drought.
Source: The Fire Next Time
„Color is not a human or a personal reality; it is a political reality.“
— James Baldwin, book The Fire Next Time
Source: The Fire Next Time
„There are too many things we do not wish to know about ourselves.“
— James Baldwin, book The Fire Next Time
Source: The Fire Next Time
„Do I really want to be integrated into a burning house?“
— James Baldwin, book The Fire Next Time
Source: The Fire Next Time
„The impossible is the least that one can demand.“
— James Baldwin, book The Fire Next Time
Source: The Fire Next Time
„Whoever debases others is debasing himself.“
— James Baldwin, book The Fire Next Time
Source: The Fire Next Time
— James Baldwin, book The Fire Next Time
The Fire Next Time http://books.google.com/books?id=0S9TgXJ-aD0C&q=%22If+the+word+integration+means+anything+this+is+what+it+means+that+we+with+love+shall+force+our+brothers+to+see+themselves+as+they+are+to+cease+fleeing+from+reality+and+begin%22&pg=PA21#v=onepage (1963)
