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" I was obsessed with New York early on. I was watching sitcoms that were set in or around New York, like 'The Dick Van Dyke Show.' I was always very fascinated with the people who were on 'What's My Line?' and I always had an incredible obsession with the city. "

George C. Wolfe

Always

City

New York

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" Certain things come to me; I just become intrigued by them and want to live inside them. "

" I'm convinced whenever something opens on Broadway, it's a miracle. It's a miracle that people survived. "

" I want to create a theater that looks, feels, and smells like America. "

George C. Wolfe

Create

America

" Anytime you create art, you create a mess. I mean, 'Hamlet' is a mess! "

" The rules I sort of live by for my theater career, which I hope to live for my film career, is that if there's something that intrigues me or fascinates me, or I don't know how to do it, then I should do it. "

" A music serves truth up to you in a really interesting way that allows you to luxuriate in its beauty and, at the same time, to hopefully see yourself in its fragility. "

" I was raised to believe that other people's suffering was my responsibility. "

" I don't go, like, 'Hmm, I'm now going to create something for the black community.' I just feel this compelling urge. I just feel myself drawn to stories that I feel have a potency and immediacy. "

" Musicals spring forth from minstrelsy, vaudeville, melodramas; it was all these things combined to create the form. "

" To me, 'Show Boat' was the first American musical, the first to have the real texture of this country. "

" When 'Jelly's' went out on tour, no one really wanted it. It was undersold. And I knew if I gave 'Noise' to someone else, they would sell it as 'Stomp' with little dancing black boys. "

" I think there's an aspect of my soul, of my personality, that's very suited to directing. I like being in the room with actors; I love creating a safe space and a chaotic space for the discovery to take place. I love creating a sense of community. "

" Ultimately, theatre is about creating a sense of wonder, and I think wonder is achieved not by a kind of wide-eyed silliness but by being available to that which is most unknown, inside the material and inside yourself. "

" If you have the talent and passion and commitment, you shouldn't be locked out of the room. "

" Producing has empowered me as an artist in a specific way. It's forced a certain kind of maturity. "

George C. Wolfe

Artist

Maturity

" Every single wave, when I was overwhelmed and poor and struggling in New York, there were these extraordinary people in New York who said, 'Come this way.' "

" On different projects, different pieces of you will show up. Sometimes it's surprising which piece shows up. "

" Theater, at the end of the day, is about ideas. It's about very large ideas. And if the play is beautifully written or smartly written and has incredible characters you follow on the journey, you take home these larger ideas. Whether it's 'Angels in America' or 'Lucky Guy' or 'Normal Heart,' you follow this moment-to-moment journey as an audience. "

" When you're writing, in theory, everybody is serving you. When you're directing, you're serving everybody - in the guise of acting like everybody's serving you. But you're really serving the materials. You're serving the actors. You're in charge, but it's not free. "

" The wonderful thing about theater is that it has so many people involved in the creation of it. The worst thing about theater is that it has so many people involved in the creation of it. That dynamic is thrilling and challenging every time you make a show. "

" Generally, the realm in which black playwrights have been allowed to achieve success has been social realism or musicals. "

" When 'The Normal Heart' first appeared, the sense of urgency was so important. "

" The worst thing when you're working is to say, 'I have a question,' and the other person goes, 'No! This is what it is.' That kind of rigidity is very challenging because musicals are constantly mutating. "

" I love and I'm intrigued by what history does to people and to subjects that matter. "

" You've got to make the rehearsal room very safe. You can't bully people, because if you bully people, they're going to freeze and lock up. "

" 'You Gotta Have Heart' is one of the most ridiculously perfect, amazing musical comedy songs ever. "

" In Los Angeles, wealth and poverty are separated by the freeways. In New York, they're next to each other. "

" Growing up in the South, I was raised to be a Negro boy. I was acutely aware how other people perceived me, and that informed my behavior. That worked for a period of time, but it could also be suffocating. "

George C. Wolfe

Time

People

" When I was little, I remember rehearsing starving so that when I got to New York I would know how to do it. "

" When I was on dialysis, I willed myself to do 'On the Town.' It accesses my most childlike, joyful love of theater. "