I know some things when I start. I know, let's say, that the play is going to be a 1970s or a 1930s play, and it's going to be about a piano, but that's it. I slowly discover who the characters are as I go along.

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

The blues are important primarily because they contain the cultural expression and the cultural response to blacks in America and to the situation that they find themselves in. And contained in the blues is a philosophical system at work. And as part of the oral tradition, this is a way of passing along information.

Style ain't nothing but keeping the same idea from beginning to end. Everybody got it.

You get to the point where your demons, which are terrifying, get smaller and smaller and you get bigger and bigger.

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

I been with strangers all day and they treated me like family. I come in here to family and you treat me like a stranger.