I have not written about being a Negro at such length because I do not expect that to be my only subject, but only because it was the gate I had to unlock before I could hope to write about anything else.


"The Hard Kind of Courage" in Harper's (October 1958) republished as "A Fly in Buttermilk" in Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son (1961)

James Baldwin Quotes

I have not written about being a Negro at such length because I do not expect that to be my only subject, but only because it was the gate I had to...

I have not written about being a Negro at such length because I do not expect that to be my only subject, but only because it was the gate I had to...

I have not written about being a Negro at such length because I do not expect that to be my only subject, but only because it was the gate I had to...

I have not written about being a Negro at such length because I do not expect that to be my only subject, but only because it was the gate I had to...