We are not afraid to look under the bed, or to wash the sheets; we know that life is messy. We know that somebody has to clean it up, and that only if it is cleaned up can we hope to start over, and get better.

Mama, I know you used to ride the bus. Riding the bus, and it’s hot and bumpy and crowded and too noisy, and more than anything else in the world, you wanna get off. And the only reason in the world you don’t get off is it’s still fifty blocks from where you’re going. Well, I can get off right now if I want to. Because even if I ride fifty more years and get off then, it’s still the same place when I step down to it. Whenever I feel like it, I can get off. Whenever I’ve had enough, it’s my stop. I’ve had enough.

I feel that I speak the musical language.

When ''night, Mother' opened, I did not know how long it would be before I would have another show on Broadway.

Art is how a culture records its life, how it poses questions for the next generation and how it will be remembered.

People do think that if they avoid the truth, it might change to something better before they have to hear it.

At the heart of the failure of most plays is the inability to carry on a thoughtful conversation about your work with yourself.