Your demons will cause your angels to sing. Use the pain as fuel.
August WilsonRead
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 not forget or toss away our history.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that the essence of jazz is not flawed, but rather, it is the mindset surrounding it that faces challenges.
August Wilson asserts that while jazz music itself is a rich and vibrant expression, the struggles lie in the attitudes and perspectives of people regarding it. He highlights the importance of recognizing and valuing one's history, suggesting that a lack of understanding or appreciation for our past can lead to misguided views on artistic forms like jazz.
Themes
JazzMusicAttitudeHistoryArt
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a speech at a jazz festival to highlight the importance of music history.
More from August Wilson
All quotes →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.
August WilsonRead
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
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