When you're a writer, you have to write these stories, even if you don't get paid

I’ve known people that the world has thrown everything at to discourage them...to break their spirit. And yet something about them retains a dignity. They face life and don’t ask quarters.

If I ever teach writing again, I’d say the first lesson is to listen.

I'm a social writer in the sense that I want to record, but not in the sense of trying to change people's minds.

I come out of a strong oral tradition in the South.

You have to watch out with my plays. They're like yeast. You think they're one thing, then all of a sudden subtext gets to working.

Writing is the thing that props me up.

A heart is a bird which can only hear the song of kindness and love.

Accept corrections and you’ll improve and increase.

This is what being alive feels like, you know? The place doesn't matter. You just live.

It is not enough to fight. It is the spirit which we bring to the fight that decides the issue. It is morale that wins the victory.

I was reared in a Jehovah's Witness household. I was taught that every man should be judged by his deeds and not his color, and I firmly stand where my grandmother left me.

I still subscribe to the minority view that all horses are offensive weapons and not to be trusted a yard.

I have only one ambition left: I should like to have a good epitaph.

I'm in favor of approaching both the night and the day with intention.

Self-knowledge is no guarantee of happiness, but it is on the side of happiness and can supply the courage to fight for it.

Western countries in particular can today no longer be separated from Muslim societies, because they have them within themselves. They are themselves internally globalized.