I was not born to be what someone said I was. I was not born to be defined by someone else, but by myself, and myself only.' James Baldwin lived by that creed. When, in the fall of 1987, the poet Quincy Troupe travelled to the south of France to interview a critically ill James Baldwin, they knew it was his last chance to speak at length about his life and work. The result is one of the most eloquent and revelatory interviews of Baldwin's career, ranging widely over his youth in Harlem, his friendship with Miles Davis and Toni Morrison and his thoughts on race.'