What comes forth from you as an artist cannot be controlled. But you have responsibilities as a global citizen. Your history dictates your duty. And by writing about black people, you are not limiting yourself. The experiences of African-Americans are as wide open as God's closet.

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

For me, the original play becomes an historical document: This is where I was when I wrote it, and I have to move on now to something else.

The impulse to write the poem, that impulse is a great dramatic impulse. But hell, anybody could write a play. I do know this: all writers are not dramatists. You may be a great writer, but that doesn't necessarily mean you're a dramatist. Very few people have done both.

My greatest influence has been the blues. And that's a literary influence, because I think the blues is the best literature that we as black Americans have.

I cried a river of tears but he was too heavy to float on them. So I dragged him with me these years across an ocean.

All you need is the blues. To me, the blues is the book, it's the bible, it's everything.