1. “You are responsible for the world you live in.”
2. “Death ain’t nothing but a fastball on the outside corner.”
3. “Your demons will cause your angels to sing. use pain a s fuel.”
4. “All of art is a search for ways of being, of living life more fully.”
5. “You got to be right with yourself before you can be right with anybody else.”
6. “Style ain’t nothing but keeping the same idea from beginning to end. Everybody got it.”
7. “I found out life’s hard but it ain’t impossible.”
8. “I don’t write for a particular audience.”
9. “Life don’t owe you nothing.”
10. “Freedom is heavy. you got to put your shoulder to freedom. put your shoulder to it and hope your back holds up.”
11. “The simpler you say it, the more eloquent it is.”
12. “All art is political in the sense that it serves someone’s politics.”
13. “All you need in the world is love and laughter. That’s all anybody needs. To have love in one hand and laughter in the other.”
14. “Blacks have traditionally had to operate in a situation where whites have set themselves up as the custodians of the black experience.”
15. “Suffice it to say, I’m not poor.”
16. “Between speeches and awards, you can find something to do every other week. It’s hard to write. Your focus gets splintered. Once you put one thing in your calendar, that month is gone.”
17. “For me, the original play becomes n historical document: This is where I was when I wrote it, and I have to move on now to something else.”
18. “I may be personable, but I assure you I am a lion.”
19. “Use the pain as fuel, as a reminder of your strength.”
20. “Have a belief in yourself that is bigger than anyone’s disbelief.”
