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" My grandfather was a Pullman porter, and my father put his way through college by cleaning floors at night in the libraries. I understand that working people are in some way the bedrock of my existence and the existence of many people here. "

Lynn Nottage

Cleaning

Father

People

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

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

" I wouldn't say I see my work as having a political ideology. Lynn Nottage certainly has a political ideology. I think that the work is an extension of who I am, but I don't think that when I write the play I'm looking to push the audience one way or another. "

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

" 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. "

" There's never any ebb in human misery. "

" 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. "

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

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

Lynn Nottage

Then

Listen

" For me, playwriting is sharing my experiences, telling my stories. "

Lynn Nottage

Experiences

Sharing

" 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. "

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

" 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.' "

Lynn Nottage

Small

Revolution

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

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

" Silence is complicity. I believe that. "

" 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 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. "

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

Lynn Nottage

Power

Standing

" My parents are avid consumers of art, collectors of African American paintings, and have always gone to the theater. My mother has always been an activist, too. As long as I can remember, we were marching in lines. "

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

" We use metaphors to express our own truths. "

" 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. "

" The person whose work introduced me to the craft was Lorraine Hansberry. The person who taught me to love the craft was Tennessee Williams. The person who really taught me the power of the craft was August Wilson, and the person who taught me the political heft of the craft was Arthur Miller. "

" I am a Tony voter; it is an honor that I take seriously. Each season, I enter the process with a degree of enthusiasm and optimism, which dissipates as I slowly plow through show after show. "

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

" American audiences very rarely deal with material outside their borders. "

" '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.' "

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

" 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