I am not a historian. I happen to think that the content of my mother's life - her myths, her superstitions, her prayers, the contents of her pantry, the smell of her kitchen, the song that escaped from her sometimes parched lips, her thoughtful repose and pregnant laughter - are all worthy of art.
August WilsonI think that's the core of black aesthetics: the ability to improvise. That is what has enabled our [black people's] survival.
August WilsonMy 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.
August WilsonYou get to the point where your demons, which are terrifying, get smaller and smaller and you get bigger and bigger.
August WilsonAs soon as white folks say a play's good, the theater is jammed with blacks and whites.
August WilsonThere are always and only two trains running. There is life and there is death. Each of us rides them both. To live life with dignity, to celebrate and accept responsibility for your presence in the world is all that can be asked of anyone.
August WilsonThere's no reason why you can't say "August Wilson, playwright" even though all of my work, every single play, is about black Americans, about black American culture, about the black experience in America. I write about the black experience of men, or I write about black folks. That's who I am. In the same manner that Chekhov wrote about the Russians, I write about blacks. I couldn't do anything else. I wouldn't do anything else.
August Wilson