American - Playwright | April 27, 1945 - October 2, 2005
Pittsburgh is a very hard city, especially if you're black.
August Wilson
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We were what you would call a poor family, but we were rich in so many things. We did family things together. We always had dessert, even if it was just Jell-O. So, I never knew I was poor.
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The most valuable blacks are those in prison, those who have the warrior spirit, who had a sense of being African. They got for their women and children what they needed when all other avenues were closed to them.
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Once I started to value and respect my characters, I could really hear them. I just let them start talking.
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From Romare Bearden I learned that the fullness and richness of everyday life can be rendered without compromise or sentimentality.
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I think all in all, one thing a lot of plays seem to be saying is that we need to, as black Americans, to make a connection with our past in order to determine the kind of future we're going to have. In other words, we simply need to know who we are in relation to our historical presence in America.
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I first got involved in theater in 1968, at the height of a social tumult. I was a poet.
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As soon as white folks say a play's good, the theater is jammed with blacks and whites.
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Between speeches and awards, you can find something to do every other week. It's hard to write. Your focus gets splintered. Once you put one thing in your calendar, that month is gone.
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Suffice it to say, I'm not poor.
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For me, the original play becomes an historical document: This is where I was when I wrote it, and I have to move on now to something else.
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I don't write for a particular audience.
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