Lynn Nottage

We use metaphors to express our own truths.

— Lynn Nottage

I need a release from whatever I'm writing.

— Lynn Nottage

My hobby is raising my children.

— Lynn Nottage

I try to be led by my curiosity.

— Lynn Nottage

Broadway is a closed ecosystem.

— Lynn Nottage

For me, the first thing is to tell a good story.

— Lynn Nottage

I think sometimes you need distance to reflect.

— Lynn Nottage

There's never any ebb in human misery.

— Lynn Nottage

By the time I reached 50, I'd accumulated many unresolved fears and desires.

— Lynn Nottage

The theatre should reflect America as it's lived in today. And that is a multicultural America.

— Lynn Nottage

What I often do when I'm writing, if I can't find that story, I go out and I hunt for it.

— Lynn Nottage

All of my plays are about people who have been marginalized... erased from the public record.

— Lynn Nottage

American audiences very rarely deal with material outside their borders.

— Lynn Nottage

We live in a global society, and I don't think we can talk about, quote unquote, 'American themes' anymore.

— Lynn Nottage

I see procrastination and research as part of my artistic process.

— Lynn Nottage

Who wants to see the same play again? I certainly don't want to write the same play again and again.

— Lynn Nottage

I was repeatedly told that there isn't an African American woman who can open a show on Broadway. I said, 'Well, how…

— Lynn Nottage

A lot of the factories that had been the bedrock of many small cities were being shut down, which led me to…

— Lynn Nottage

I think folks who are resistant to engaging in art become less so once they encounter art that really reflects them.

— Lynn Nottage

I'm interested in people who are dwelling outside the mainstream. And very often, those people happen to be woman of color.

— Lynn Nottage

Before I start, I create a set list that I listen to while I'm writing. For 'Intimate Apparel,' I loaded Erik Satie,…

— Lynn Nottage

We need to diversify the people who are backstage and producing and marketing these shows. It's the limitations of these people that…

— Lynn Nottage

It's much easier to conjure characters strictly from your imagination than to have to think about whether you're representing people in a…

— Lynn Nottage

It's very easy, when we're reading those articles on the 20th page of 'The New York Times,' to distance ourselves and say,…

— Lynn Nottage

I think that when you're first shaping the play and trying to find a character, the initial actors that develop it end…

— Lynn Nottage

'Ruined' was a play which was somewhat of an anomaly in that I did not take a commission until it was finished…

— Lynn Nottage

I find my characters and stories in many varied places; sometimes they pop out of newspaper articles, obscure historical texts, lively dinner…

— Lynn Nottage

In many ways, I consider those to be my formative years, because when you're in school, you have a distant relationship to…

— Lynn Nottage

I see the audience as the final collaborator. I think it's kind of bullshit when people say, "I'm not interested in the…

— Lynn Nottage

In senior year at college, Paula Vogel was my playwriting teacher; she is the first person to introduce me to the notion…

— Lynn Nottage

I wanted to tell the story of these women and the war in the Congo and I couldn't find anything about them…

— Lynn Nottage

Here's the dilemma of the modern age: There used to be actions that workers could take, in the form of a strike.…

— Lynn Nottage

I feel it's my social responsibility to shine a light on areas that don't get seen. My personal feeling is that it's…

— Lynn Nottage

I'm a schizophrenic writer.

— Lynn Nottage

Each play I write has its own unique origin story.

— Lynn Nottage

Silence is complicity. I believe that.

— Lynn Nottage

The stage is the last bastion of segregation.

— Lynn Nottage

Replace judgment with curiosity.

— Lynn Nottage

I think of myself as a healing artist.

— Lynn Nottage

I am a storyteller by trade.

— Lynn Nottage