We were land-based agrarian people from Africa. We were uprooted from Africa, and we spent 200 years developing our culture as black Americans. And then we left the South. We uprooted ourselves and attempted to transplant this culture to the pavements of the industrialized North. And it was a transplant that did not take. I think if we had stayed in the South, we would have been a stronger people. And because the connection between the South of the 20's, 30's and 40's has been broken, it's very difficult to understand who we are.

The simpler you say it, the more eloquent it is.

As soon as white folks say a play's good, the theater is jammed with blacks and whites.

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.

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 think that's the core of black aesthetics: the ability to improvise. That is what has enabled our [black people's] survival.

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