All art is political in the sense that it serves someone's politics..

As long as the colored man look to white folks to put the crown on what he say . . . as long as he looks to white folks for approval . . . then he ai….

What do you do with your legacy, and how do you best put it to use?.

You are responsible for the world that you live in..

I believe in the American theatre. I believe in its power to inform about the human condition, its power to heal ... its power to uncover the truths ….

. . . what happened, of course, was that I was writing a play set in the 1940's that was supposed to be somehow representative of black American life….

What comes forth from you as an artist cannot be controlled. But you have responsibilities as a global citizen. Your history dictates your duty. And ….

Jazz in itself is not struggling. That is, the music itself is not struggling... It's the attitude that's in trouble. My plays insist that we should ….

Between speeches and awards, you can find something to do every other week. It's hard to write. Your focus gets splintered. Once you put one thing in….

I think that as a playwright, if I detail that environment, then I'm taking away something from them [designers]. I'm taking away their creativity an….

The blues are important primarily because they contain the cultural expression and the cultural response to blacks in America and to the situation th….

The details of our struggle to survive and prosper, in what has been a difficult and sometimes bitter relationship with a system of laws and practice….

Blacks have traditionally had to operate in a situation where whites have set themselves up as the custodians of the black experience..

Death ain't nothing but a fastball on the outside corner..

I work as an artist, and I think the audience of one, which is the self, and I have to satisfy myself as an artist. So I always say that I write for ….

Use the pain as fuel, as a reminder of your strength..

I don't go by what the law say. The law's liable to say anything. I go by if it's right or not. It don't matter what the law say. I take and look at ….

I ain't never found no place for me to fit. Seem like all I do is start over. It ain't nothing to find no starting place in the world. You just start….

When the sins of our fathers visit us We do not have to play host. We can banish them with forgiveness As God, in his His Largeness and Laws..

Suffice it to say, I'm not poor..

We were land-based agrarian people from Africa. We were uprooted from Africa, and we spent 200 years developing our culture as black Americans. And t….