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" '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.' "

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" I think folks who are resistant to engaging in art become less so once they encounter art that really reflects them. "

Lynn Nottage

Think

Engaging

Become

" For me, the first thing is to tell a good story. "

Lynn Nottage

Story

Good Story

" 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. "

" I knew that there was a great deal of depth and life that was sitting just beyond my mother's gaze. "

" 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. "

" The great thing about 'Vera Stark' is that my research was watching movies, screwball comedies, so I could literally sit back and relax. "

" I feel like 'Sweat' arrived on Broadway at the moment that it needed to. I feel like a commercial audience was not prepared for 'Ruined' or 'Intimate Apparel' for many different reasons. "

" 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. "

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

Lynn Nottage

Racial

Very

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

Lynn Nottage

Power

Standing

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

Lynn Nottage

Then

Listen

" 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. "

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

" I think sometimes you need distance to reflect. "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

" I try to be led by my curiosity. "

" I would like there to be gender equity. I would like the Broadway season to reflect sort of the demographic of the country. "

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

" The more you go to a theatre and the more you hear stories you aren't necessarily familiar with, the more open you become. "

Lynn Nottage

You

Become

" 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. "

" Broadway is a closed ecosystem. "

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" Who wants to see the same play again? I certainly don't want to write the same play again and again. "

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