Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" I was repeatedly told that there isn't an African American woman who can open a show on Broadway. I said, 'Well, how do we know? How do we know if we don't do it?' I said, 'I think you're wrong.' "

Lynn Nottage

You

American

Think

Related Quotes:

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

Lynn Nottage

Power

Standing

" The people sometimes who are closest to us are the ones who bear the brunt of our frustration. "

Lynn Nottage

Bear

Sometimes

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

Lynn Nottage

Racial

Very

" I think that human beings were incredibly resilient; otherwise, we wouldn't keep going. "

" I need a release from whatever I'm writing. "

" It is such a joy to join a legacy of amazing female playwrights who have managed to break through the glass ceiling and reinvigorate the Broadway stage by bringing a fresh and necessary perspective. "

" Like Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, I try to balance reality with how we'd like the world to be. "

" When I sat in rooms with middle-aged white men, I heard them speaking like young black men in America. They had been solidly middle class for the majority of their working careers, but now they were feeling angry, disaffected, and in some cases, they actually had tears in their eyes. "

" I am interested in people living in the margins of society, and I do have a mission to tell the stories of women of colour in particular. I feel we've been present throughout history, but our voices have been neglected. "

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

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

" It's very easy, when we're reading those articles on the 20th page of 'The New York Times,' to distance ourselves and say, 'It's someone else.' "

" I don't think any of us could predict Trump. Trump is the stuff of nightmares. But in talking to people, I knew there was a tremendous level of disaffection and anger and sorrow. I know people felt misrepresented and voiceless. "

Lynn Nottage

People

Talking

" I try to be led by my curiosity. "

" People probably have different philosophies about this, but I think that when you're first shaping the play and trying to find a character, the initial actors that develop it end up imprinting on it - you hear their voices; you hear their rhythms. You can't help but to begin to write toward them during the rehearsal process. "

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

" When you're fighting for an increasingly smaller portion of the pie, you turn against each other; you create reasons to hate each other. "

" Before I start, I create a set list that I listen to while I'm writing. For 'Intimate Apparel,' I loaded Erik Satie, Scott Joplin, klezmer music, and the American jazz performer and composer Reginald Robinson. "

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

" We live in a global society, and I don't think we can talk about, quote unquote, 'American themes' anymore. "

" In listening to the narratives of the Congolese, I came to terms with the extent to which their bodies had become battlefields. "

" 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. "

" 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 wrote 'Ruined' and 'Vera Stark' at the same time. That's just how my brain functions - when I'm dwelling someplace very heavy, I need a release. "

" I always describe race as the final taboo in American theatre. There's a real reluctance to have that conversation in an open, honest way on the stage. "

" I was really interested in the way in which poverty and economic stagnation were transforming and corrupting the American narrative. "

" I do see myself as an old-fashioned storyteller. But there's always a touch of the political in my plays. "

" By and large, the theatre establishment is run by a white majority. "

" 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. "