You are responsible for the world that you live in.

I believe in the American theatre. I believe in its power to inform about the human condition, its power to heal ... its power to uncover the truths we wrestle from uncertain and sometimes unyielding realities.

Suffice it to say, I'm not poor.

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

What do you do with your legacy, and how do you best put it to use?

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 work as an artist, and I think the audience of one, which is the self, and I have to satisfy myself as an artist. So I always say that I write for the same people that Picasso painted for. I think he painted for himself.