Lynn Nottage Quotes

#1. I find my characters and stories in many varied places; sometimes they pop out of newspaper articles, obscure historical texts, lively dinner party conversations and some even crawl out of the dusty remote recesses of my imagination.

Lynn Nottage

#2. A play that forces us to question our moral responsibility to the victims of human rights abuse.

Lynn Nottage

#3. If you lead with the anger, it will turn off the audience. And what I want is the audience to engage with the material and to listen and then to ask questions. I think that 'Ruined' was very successful at doing that.

Lynn Nottage

#4. Just because it's a unique perspective doesn't mean it can't offer something universal.

Lynn Nottage

#5. I've been asked a lot why didn't 'Ruined' go to Broadway. It was the most successful play that Manhattan Theatre Club has ever had in that particular space, and yet we couldn't find a home on Broadway.

Lynn Nottage

#6. I need a release from whatever I'm writing.

Lynn Nottage

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

Lynn Nottage

#8. I was repeatedly told that there isn't an African American woman who can open a show on Broadway. I said, 'Well, how do we know? How do we know if we don't do it?' I said, 'I think you're wrong.'

Lynn Nottage

#9. I always thought of my mother as a warrior woman, and I became interested in pursuing stories of women who invent lives in order to survive.

Lynn Nottage

#10. African American women in particular have incredible buying power. Statistically, we go to the movies more than anyone. We have made Tyler Perry's career. His films open with $25 million almost consistently.

Lynn Nottage

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

Lynn Nottage

#12. Each play I write has its own unique origin story.

Lynn Nottage

#13. I am interested in people living in the margins of society, and I do have a mission to tell the stories of women of colour in particular. I feel we've been present throughout history, but our voices have been neglected.

Lynn Nottage

#14. I can't quite remember the exact moment when I became obsessed with writing a play about the seemingly endless war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but I knew that I wanted to somehow tell the stories of the Congolese women caught in the cross-fire.

Lynn Nottage

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

Lynn Nottage

#16. I'm a schizophrenic writer.

Lynn Nottage