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" If you're looking at the people who head the institutions, there are very few African Americans or people of colour. I'm talking about the major theatres that position themselves as serving all audiences. What you find is, by and large, people who are shaping what we see, and the people who are the tastemakers are white. "

Lynn Nottage

Looking

White

You

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" The stage is the last bastion of segregation. "

" I find my characters and stories in many varied places; sometimes they pop out of newspaper articles, obscure historical texts, lively dinner party conversations and some even crawl out of the dusty remote recesses of my imagination. "

" I try to be led by my curiosity. "

" If you lead with the anger, it will turn off the audience. And what I want is the audience to engage with the material and to listen and then to ask questions. I think that 'Ruined' was very successful at doing that. "

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

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

" Growing up in New York City, I'd flirted with the idea of driving, but between the subway and the sidewalks, I'd never needed to learn. "

" 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. "

" In my family history, there are generations of women who were abandoned by men. It's one of the themes of my family. "

" '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.' "

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

Lynn Nottage

Power

Standing

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

" The essence of creativity is to look beyond where you can actually see. I don't want to dwell in same place too long. "

" My fears about where theater is going - it's the Hollywood model, where people are chasing the almighty dollar and making commercial decisions based on nothing more than generating income for themselves and their theaters. "

" 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. "

" The act of saying what you do helps shape you as an artist. "

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

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

" 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. "

" I'm a schizophrenic writer. "

Lynn Nottage

Writer

Schizophrenic

" I am a storyteller by trade. "

Lynn Nottage

Storyteller

Trade

" 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. "

" The theatre should reflect America as it's lived in today. And that is a multicultural America. "

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

" There was no way I was going to write about Africa and not include the triumphant continuity of life that had also been part of my experience there. It's not just war and famine all the time. "

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

" There is an enduring feeling that women can write domestic dramas but don't have the muscularity or the vision to write state-of-the-nation narratives. "

" 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 teach at Columbia, and I'm always looking for books I can lose myself in during the 45 minutes I'm on the train. "

" 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.' "