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

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.

I dont write particularly to effect social change. I believe writing can do that, but thats not why I write.

My influences have been what I call my four Bs - the primary one being the blues, then Borges, Baraka, and Bearden.

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.

Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing.

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.