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.

When I first started writing plays I couldn't write good dialogue because I didn't respect how black people talked. I thought that in order to make art out of their dialogue I had to change it, make it into something different. Once I learned to value and respect my characters, I could really hear them. I let them start talking.

You got to take the crookeds with the straights. That's what Papa used to say.

As long as the colored man look to white folks to put the crown on what he say . . . as long as he looks to white folks for approval . . . then he ain't never gonna find out who he is and what he's about.

There's no idea in the world that is not contained by black life. I could write forever about the black experience in America.

Have a belief in yourself that is bigger than anyone's disbelief.

Freedom is heavy. You got to put your shoulder to freedom. Put your shoulder to it and hope your back holds up.