Fire on the Mountain Quotes

“Fire on the mountain,” the granny woman said. “They up there sharpening they swords.” Then she said that word again: freedom.”
― Terry Bisson, Fire on the Mountain

“The present, due to its staggering complexities, is almost as conjectural as the past.” —George Jackson “Dawn also has its terrors.” —Victor Hugo “America is our country, more than it is the whites’ ... we have enriched it with our blood and tears.” —David Walker “My love to all who love their neighbors.” —John Brown”
― Terry Bisson, Fire on the Mountain

“Oh, Brown was our lion and Tubman our fox, great-grandson!”
― Terry Bisson, Fire on the Mountain

“Sometimes missing things was the next best thing to having them.”
― Terry Bisson, Fire on the Mountain

“I was very aware that the army was here to kill something hiding out (and I think the other black folks felt this as well) not only on the mountain, but inside my heart as well.”
― Terry Bisson, Fire on the Mountain

“How close the past looms, circling the present like a dead moon, lifting slow repetitious tides on the living planet.”
― Terry Bisson, Fire on the Mountain