“I write the black experience in America, and contained within that exp...” — August Wilson Quote

I write the black experience in America, and contained within that experience, because it is a human experience, are all the universalities.

I try to explore, in terms of the life I know best, those things which are common to all cultures.

The exact day I became a poet was April 1, 1965, the day I bought my first typewriter.

Most of black America is in housing projects, without jobs, living on welfare. And this is not the case in 'The Cosby Show,' because all the values in that household are strictly what I would call white American values.

I think the blues is the best literature that we as blacks have created since we've been here. I call it our 'sacred book.' What I've attempted to do is to mine that field, to mine those cultural ideas and attitudes and give them to my characters.

All partisan movements add to the fullness of our understanding of society as a whole. They never detract; or, in any case, one must not allow them to do so. Experience adds to experience.

Acting is a very personal process. It has to do with expressing your own personality, and discovering the character you're playing through your own experience - so we're all different.

Everybody's gone through high school; everybody understands that dynamic. Some people have a great time, and some people don't have a great time. My high school experience was not the greatest. I wasn't necessarily bullied, but I was one of those guys that just goes along, and I didn't really feel connected to many of the social cliques.

Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy. Human beings have the awesome ability to take any experience of their lives and create a meaning that disempowers them or one that can literally save their lives.