Your demons will cause your angels to sing. Use the pain as fuel.
August WilsonRead
I think the blues is the best literature that we as blacks have created since we've been here. I call it our 'sacred book.' What I've attempted to do is to mine that field, to mine those cultural ideas and attitudes and give them to my characters.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The blues genre is seen as a profound expression of Black culture, serving as a vital literary form that captures shared experiences.
August Wilson highlights the significance of the blues as a unique and essential literary expression of the Black experience in America. He regards it as a 'sacred book' that embodies deep cultural ideas and emotions, which he seeks to integrate into the characters of his plays, thus preserving and conveying the richness of Black heritage through art.
Themes
BluesLiteratureCultureArtBlack Heritage
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech celebrating Black History Month, one might quote this to highlight the importance of Black artistic expression.
More from August Wilson
All quotes →All you need in the world is love and laughter. That's all anybody needs. To have love in one hand and laughter in the other.
August WilsonRead
I do - very specifically, I remember Bessie Smith; I used to collect 78 records that I would buy from the St Vincent de Paul store at five cents apiece, and I did this indiscriminately. I would just take whatever was there. And I listened to Patti Page and Walter Huston, 'September Song.'
August WilsonRead
I know some things when I start. I know, let's say, that the play is going to be a 1970s or a 1930s play, and it's going to be about a piano, but that's it. I slowly discover who the characters are as I go along.
August WilsonRead
When I first started writing plays I couldn't write good dialogue because I didn't respect how black people talked. I thought that in order to make art out of their dialogue I had to change it, make it into something different. Once I learned to value and respect my characters, I could really hear them. I let them start talking.
August WilsonRead
My influences have been what I call my four Bs - the primary one being the blues, then Borges, Baraka, and Bearden.
August WilsonRead
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