Lynn Nottage

The essence of creativity is to look beyond where you can actually see. I don't want to dwell in same place too…

— Lynn Nottage

African American women in particular have incredible buying power. Statistically, we go to the movies more than anyone. We have made Tyler…

— Lynn Nottage

I always describe race as the final taboo in American theatre. There's a real reluctance to have that conversation in an open,…

— Lynn Nottage

When the play is still evolving I try to be at rehearsal as often as possible, and part of that casting process.…

— Lynn Nottage

I always thought of my mother as a warrior woman, and I became interested in pursuing stories of women who invent lives…

— Lynn Nottage

There was no way I was going to write about Africa and not include the triumphant continuity of life that had also…

— Lynn Nottage

Plays are getting smaller and smaller, not because playwrights minds are shrinking but because of the economics.

— Lynn Nottage

My interest in theatre and storytelling began in my mother's kitchen. It was a meeting place for my mother's large circle of…

— Lynn Nottage

I don't think any of us could predict Trump. Trump is the stuff of nightmares. But in talking to people, I knew…

— Lynn Nottage

If you lead with the anger, it will turn off the audience. And what I want is the audience to engage with…

— Lynn Nottage

I'm interested in the moments where the audience is restless. I'm interested in the moments where they lean in and become incredibly…

— Lynn Nottage

As a woman of color, slowly and with some coercing, the not-for-profit theaters around the country are beginning to recognize and embrace…

— Lynn Nottage

The person whose work introduced me to the craft was Lorraine Hansberry. The person who taught me to love the craft was…

— Lynn Nottage

If you're looking at the people who head the institutions, there are very few African Americans or people of colour. I'm talking…

— Lynn Nottage

Once working people discover that, collectively, we have more power than we do as individual silos, then we become an incredibly powerful…

— Lynn Nottage

I wouldn't say I see my work as having a political ideology. Lynn Nottage certainly has a political ideology. I think that…

— Lynn Nottage

If the Tony Awards want to remain relevant in the American theater conversation, then they need to embrace the true diversity of…

— Lynn Nottage

I would like there to be gender equity. I would like the Broadway season to reflect sort of the demographic of the…

— Lynn Nottage

In the business of war, the role of women is really to maintain normalcy and ensure that there is cultural continuity.

— Lynn Nottage

In listening to the narratives of the Congolese, I came to terms with the extent to which their bodies had become battlefields.

— Lynn Nottage

There were not a lot of women in the theater department - it was really run by men, and so the message…

— Lynn Nottage

I teach at Columbia, and I'm always looking for books I can lose myself in during the 45 minutes I'm on the train.

— Lynn Nottage

I am a Tony voter; it is an honor that I take seriously. Each season, I enter the process with a degree…

— Lynn Nottage

In my family history, there are generations of women who were abandoned by men. It's one of the themes of my family.

— Lynn Nottage

I wonder: Would there be a black president if people hadn't already begun imagining, through film and television, that a black man…

— Lynn Nottage

I was really interested in the way in which poverty and economic stagnation were transforming and corrupting the American narrative.

— Lynn Nottage

I wrote 'Ruined' and 'Vera Stark' at the same time. That's just how my brain functions - when I'm dwelling someplace very…

— Lynn Nottage

Saying, 'I'm going to create jobs' is great, but before you create jobs, something has to be offered to alleviate some of…

— Lynn Nottage

The great thing about 'Vera Stark' is that my research was watching movies, screwball comedies, so I could literally sit back and…

— Lynn Nottage

Broadway's never my end goal because of the plays I write. These are tough plays. Of course there's a lot of humor,…

— Lynn Nottage

I feel like 'Sweat' arrived on Broadway at the moment that it needed to. I feel like a commercial audience was not…

— Lynn Nottage

I love my people's history. I feel a huge responsibility to tell the stories of my past and my ancestors' past.

— Lynn Nottage

When you're fighting for an increasingly smaller portion of the pie, you turn against each other; you create reasons to hate each…

— Lynn Nottage