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" I like to go into a space, listen, absorb, and then interpret. "

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" Here's the dilemma of the modern age: There used to be actions that workers could take, in the form of a strike. But now, that's being pre-empted by lockouts. They don't even have that leverage to protect their jobs. "

" A lot of the factories that had been the bedrock of many small cities were being shut down, which led me to investigate what I'm calling the 'de-industrial revolution.' "

" Broadway's never my end goal because of the plays I write. These are tough plays. Of course there's a lot of humor, but my goal is just to reach as wide an audience as possible, however that happens. "

" Plays are getting smaller and smaller, not because playwrights minds are shrinking but because of the economics. "

" African American women in particular have incredible buying power. Statistically, we go to the movies more than anyone. We have made Tyler Perry's career. His films open with $25 million almost consistently. "

" I'm interested in people who are dwelling outside the mainstream. And very often, those people happen to be woman of color. "

" It's very important for me to have dialogues across racial lines. "

" I wonder: Would there be a black president if people hadn't already begun imagining, through film and television, that a black man is president? It's self-actualization. "

" We use metaphors to express our own truths. "

" By the sheer act of writing, we are trying to place value on the stories that we're invested in. "

" When you begin a play, you're going to have to spend a lot of time with those characters, so those characters are going to have to be rich enough that you want to take a very long journey with them. That's how I begin thinking about what I want to write about and who I want to write about. "

" I see procrastination and research as part of my artistic process. "

Procrastination

" I've been asked a lot why didn't 'Ruined' go to Broadway. It was the most successful play that Manhattan Theatre Club has ever had in that particular space, and yet we couldn't find a home on Broadway. "

" Saying, 'I'm going to create jobs' is great, but before you create jobs, something has to be offered to alleviate some of the suffering now. "

" I'm always hyperaware of the way in which working people are portrayed on the stage. "

" I am a storyteller by trade. "

" My interest in theatre and storytelling began in my mother's kitchen. It was a meeting place for my mother's large circle of friends. "

" Once working people discover that, collectively, we have more power than we do as individual silos, then we become an incredibly powerful force. But I think that there are powers that be that are invested in us remaining divided along racial lines, along economic lines. "

" 'Ruined' was a play which was somewhat of an anomaly in that I did not take a commission until it was finished because I really wanted to explore the subject matter unencumbered. Otherwise, I felt as though I'd have the voice of dramaturges and literary managers saying, 'This is great, but we'll never be able to produce it.' "

" Winning the second Pulitzer firmly places me in conversation with this culture. "

" In many ways, I consider those to be my formative years, because when you're in school, you have a distant relationship to the world in that most of what you're learning is from books and lectures. But at Amnesty, I came face to face with realities in a very direct and harsh way. "

" I can't quite remember the exact moment when I became obsessed with writing a play about the seemingly endless war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but I knew that I wanted to somehow tell the stories of the Congolese women caught in the cross-fire. "

" I'm a schizophrenic writer. "

" Women are standing up and leaning forward and asserting their power. "

" I know what I'm trying to say, so I'm always open to learning how to say it. "

" In the business of war, the role of women is really to maintain normalcy and ensure that there is cultural continuity. "

" All of my plays are about people who have been marginalized... erased from the public record. "

" The presence of a bed changes the way people interact. "

" There were not a lot of women in the theater department - it was really run by men, and so the message was that women can be onstage, but women can't really be backstage. "

" Ultimately, we're incredibly resilient creatures. People really do get on with the business of living. "