Death ain't nothing but a fastball on the outside corner.

You are responsible for the world that you live in. It is not government's responsibility. It is not your school's or your social club's or your church's or your neighbor's or your fellow citizen's. It is yours, utterly and singularly yours.

I'm a black American playwright. I couldn't be anything else. I make my art out of black American culture; they're all cut out of the same cloth. That's who I am; that's who I write about.

You got to take the crookeds with the straights. That's what Papa used to say.

There's no idea in the world that is not contained by black life. I could write forever about the black experience in America.

Have a belief in yourself that is bigger than anyone's disbelief.

Suffice it to say, I'm not poor.