Katori Hall Quotes

Many theaters are tackling the multifaceted work of black writers - established and emerging. Now the next step is for them to bring in audiences of color and continue to go out to our community and create a continuous connection that extends beyond the one black show in the season.

In order to be great, you just have to care. You have to care about your world, community, and equality.

I've had frank conversations with theaters who say, 'We love your play, but we've already done a play by another black person this year,' or 'I don't think the kind of people you write about are the ones our audience wants to see' ... Up and coming young black female writers are still struggling to have their voices heard and have their plays produced.

Serendipity always rewards the prepared.

I grew up playing with kids from Hurt Village, playing with kids from other housing projects, Lamar Terrace, because my grandmother lived in that particular area. So, I always wondered how I would have turned out if I would have lived in that particular given circumstance.

I always felt like Broadway was not for me - in terms of ticket price, in terms of what was on there. I never saw myself reflected in the mirror of the Great White Way.

It is expensive to give plays subtitles, especially for a short run, so most new dramas rarely cross the transcontinental bridge.

I'm very opinionated, very intelligent and not afraid to show that.

Unlike films, which can be easily disseminated worldwide via DVDs and the Internet, plays struggle to find an international audience.

Theatre is an exclusive place that tends to be dominated by white men, or dying white men.

'Hurt Village' is based on a real housing project in Memphis, about three minutes away from the Lorraine Hotel where Dr. King was assassinated, so in my work I'm focusing on a very specific area in Memphis. I see 'Hurt Village' as a natural extension of 'The Mountaintop.'

We expect our leaders to be godlike. But I feel that when people try to sanctify leadership, it puts it out of the realm of regular people. And that's where the greatest leaders come from - from the people.

I always say that I'm a writer who writes more from place than race.

Become your dream, and not be told what you are supposed to do.

As a black woman who grows up in a predominantly white neighborhood, you learn how to perform a 'good' version of yourself. And then when you're with your home girls, you're saying all kinds of stuff that sounds all kinds of crazy, but you understand each other because you're speaking the way that you're comfortable with.

Playwrights are the most gregarious writers - to get our work done, we need actors, directors, set designers.

I always crave to see more stories about and by people of color, particularly new work by young black writers.

I think being an actor makes me a better writer and vice versa. I know the kinds of roles I would kill to play, and I try to create them for others.