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" 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. "

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" 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 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. "

" 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

Hunt

" If the Tony Awards want to remain relevant in the American theater conversation, then they need to embrace the true diversity of voices that populate the American theater. "

" Broadway's never my end goal because of the plays I write. These are tough plays. Of course there's a lot of humor, but my goal is just to reach as wide an audience as possible, however that happens. "

" I always thought of my mother as a warrior woman, and I became interested in pursuing stories of women who invent lives in order to survive. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I've been asked a lot why didn't 'Ruined' go to Broadway. It was the most successful play that Manhattan Theatre Club has ever had in that particular space, and yet we couldn't find a home on Broadway. "

" 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. "

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

" As a woman of color, slowly and with some coercing, the not-for-profit theaters around the country are beginning to recognize and embrace the power of our stories, but with regards to Broadway and other commercial venues, we remain very much marginalized and excluded from that larger creative conversation. "

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

" 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. "

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

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

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

" 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 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

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

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

Lynn Nottage

Racial

Very

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

" 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. "

" '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.' "

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

Lynn Nottage

Story

Good Story

" 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. "

" It's incumbent on us to reach beyond the confines of the institutions that traditionally produce art and find new ways to get it to the people. "

" 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.' "