Home
Authors
Tags
App
Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App
" The essence of creativity is to look beyond where you can actually see. I don't want to dwell in same place too long. "
Lynn Nottage
Long
You
Want
Related Quotes:
" The stage is the last bastion of segregation. "
Lynn Nottage
Segregation
Last
Stage
" Ultimately, we're incredibly resilient creatures. People really do get on with the business of living. "
Lynn Nottage
Living
Business
Creatures
" For me, playwriting is sharing my experiences, telling my stories. "
Lynn Nottage
Experiences
Sharing
Me
" It's very important for me to have dialogues across racial lines. "
Lynn Nottage
Racial
Me
Very
" I am a storyteller by trade. "
Lynn Nottage
Am
Storyteller
Trade
" 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. "
Lynn Nottage
Feeling
Vision
Women
" We live in a global society, and I don't think we can talk about, quote unquote, 'American themes' anymore. "
Lynn Nottage
American
Live
Society
" 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. "
Lynn Nottage
Time
Life
Way
" I was really interested in the way in which poverty and economic stagnation were transforming and corrupting the American narrative. "
Lynn Nottage
Which
Way
Poverty
" I try to be led by my curiosity. "
Lynn Nottage
Try
Curiosity
Led
" 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. "
Lynn Nottage
You
Thinking
Rich
" The theatre should reflect America as it's lived in today. And that is a multicultural America. "
Lynn Nottage
America
Lived
Today
" In the business of war, the role of women is really to maintain normalcy and ensure that there is cultural continuity. "
Lynn Nottage
Women
War
Role
" 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. "
Lynn Nottage
Brain
Time
Same
" 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. "
Lynn Nottage
Questions
Anger
Doing
" 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
Go
" What I often do when I'm writing, if I can't find that story, I go out and I hunt for it. "
Lynn Nottage
Find
Go
Hunt
" I love my people's history. I feel a huge responsibility to tell the stories of my past and my ancestors' past. "
Lynn Nottage
Past
History
Love
" 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. "
Lynn Nottage
Start
Writing
Music
" I need a release from whatever I'm writing. "
Lynn Nottage
Need
Release
Whatever
" 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. "
Lynn Nottage
Conversation
Theatre
Race
" By the sheer act of writing, we are trying to place value on the stories that we're invested in. "
Lynn Nottage
Writing
Stories
Value
" 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. "
Lynn Nottage
Movies
American
Career
" Like Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, I try to balance reality with how we'd like the world to be. "
Lynn Nottage
Balance
How
World
" It remains an incredible struggle for women in theater, and, in particular, playwrights and directors, to get their work seen and to not only get seen, but to get it to Broadway. "
Lynn Nottage
Only
Work
Struggle
" There's never any ebb in human misery. "
Lynn Nottage
Human
Misery
Any
" Replace judgment with curiosity. "
Lynn Nottage
Judgment
Curiosity
Replace
" All of my plays are about people who have been marginalized... erased from the public record. "
Lynn Nottage
People
Public
Who
" 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. "
Lynn Nottage
End
Think
You
" '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.' "
Lynn Nottage
Saying
Great
Play