In many ways, I consider those to be my formative years, because when you're in school, you have a distant relationship to the world in that most of what you're learning is from books and lectures. But at Amnesty, I came face to face with realities in a very direct and harsh way.
There's never any ebb in human misery.
By the time I reached 50, I'd accumulated many unresolved fears and desires.
Growing up in New York City, I'd flirted with the idea of driving, but between the subway and the sidewalks, I'd never needed to learn.
A lot of the factories that had been the bedrock of many small cities were being shut down, which led me to investigate what I'm calling the 'de-industrial revolution.'
I would like there to be gender equity. I would like the Broadway season to reflect sort of the demographic of the country.
I think folks who are resistant to engaging in art become less so once they encounter art that really reflects them.
It's incumbent on us to reach beyond the confines of the institutions that traditionally produce art and find new ways to get it to the people.
It remains an incredible struggle for women in theater, and, in particular, playwrights and directors, to get their work seen and to not only get seen, but to get it to Broadway.
The presence of a bed changes the way people interact.
When I sat in rooms with middle-aged white men, I heard them speaking like young black men in America. They had been solidly middle class for the majority of their working careers, but now they were feeling angry, disaffected, and in some cases, they actually had tears in their eyes.
I do see myself as an old-fashioned storyteller. But there's always a touch of the political in my plays.
For me, the first thing is to tell a good story.
The stage is the last bastion of segregation.
It's very important for me to have dialogues across racial lines.
Winning the second Pulitzer firmly places me in conversation with this culture.
I don't think any of us could predict Trump. Trump is the stuff of nightmares. But in talking to people, I knew there was a tremendous level of disaffection and anger and sorrow. I know people felt misrepresented and voiceless.
There were not a lot of women in the theater department - it was really run by men, and so the message was that women can be onstage, but women can't really be backstage.
I'm a contemporary playwright in a postmodern world.
Who wants to see the same play again? I certainly don't want to write the same play again and again.
