It is impossible to pretend that you are not heir to, and therefore, however inadequately or unwillingly, responsible to, and for, the time and place that give you life -- without becoming, at very best, a dangerously disoriented human being.
Source: In Famous Black Quotations, ed. Janet Cheatham Bell, 1995.
-- James Baldwin, (Aug 2 1924-1987), US novelist, essayist; He was a noted spokesman for American blacks in 1950s-60s.