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.

I done learned my mistake and learned to do what's right by it. You still trying to get something for nothing. Life don't owe you nothing. You owe it to yourself. - Troy -

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.

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.

Suffice it to say, I'm not poor.

For me, the original play becomes an historical document: This is where I was when I wrote it, and I have to move on now to something else.

I write for myself and my goal is bringing that world and that experience of black Americans to life on the stage and giving it a space there.