29 Quotes by August Wilson
August Wilson was a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright known for his powerful and nuanced portrayals of the African American experience. He wrote a series of ten plays, known as the "Pittsburgh Cycle," that explore the lives of African Americans in different decades of the 20th century. Wilson's work is celebrated for its depth, complexity, and honesty, and his contributions to American theater have been widely recognized and honored. (Bio)
August Wilson Quotes
Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing. (Meaning)
You are responsible for the world that you live in. It is not government's responsibility. It is not your school's or your social club's or your church's or your neighbor's or your fellow citizen's. It is yours, utterly and singularly yours.
Have a belief in yourself that is bigger than anyone's disbelief.
All you need in the world is love and laughter. That's all anybody needs. To have love in one hand and laughter in the other. (Meaning)
All of art is a search for ways of being, of living life more fully.
Your demons will cause your angels to sing. Use the pain as fuel.
The simpler you say it, the more eloquent it is.
Freedom is heavy. You got to put your shoulder to freedom. Put your shoulder to it and hope your back holds up.
Use the pain as fuel, as a reminder of your strength.
You got to be right with yourself before you can be right with anybody else.
I may be personable, but I assure you I am a lion.
I am not a historian. I happen to think that the content of my mother's life - her myths, her superstitions, her prayers, the contents of her pantry, the smell of her kitchen, the song that escaped from her sometimes parched lips, her thoughtful repose and pregnant laughter - are all worthy of art.
All art is political in the sense that it serves someone's politics.
What comes forth from you as an artist cannot be controlled. But you have responsibilities as a global citizen. Your history dictates your duty. And by writing about black people, you are not limiting yourself. The experiences of African-Americans are as wide open as God's closet.
I work as an artist, and I think the audience of one, which is the self, and I have to satisfy myself as an artist. So I always say that I write for the same people that Picasso painted for. I think he painted for himself.
Life don't owe you nothing.
I don't write for a particular audience.
There are always and only two trains running. There is life and there is death. Each of us rides them both. To live life with dignity, to celebrate and accept responsibility for your presence in the world is all that can be asked of anyone.
My influences have been what I call my four Bs - the primary one being the blues, then Borges, Baraka, and Bearden.
I dont write particularly to effect social change. I believe writing can do that, but thats not why I write.
You are responsible for the world that you live in.
I found out life's hard but it ain't impossible.
Death ain't nothing but a fastball on the outside corner.
A novelist writes a novel, and people read it. But reading is a solitary act. While it may elicit a varied and personal response, the communal nature of the audience is like having five hundred people read your novel and respond to it at the same time. I find that thrilling.
Land [is] the only thing God ain't making no more of.
All you need is the blues. To me, the blues is the book, it's the bible, it's everything.
The details of our struggle to survive and prosper, in what has been a difficult and sometimes bitter relationship with a system of laws and practices that deny us access to the tools necessary for productive and industrious life, are available to any serious student of history or sociology.
As long as the colored man look to white folks to put the crown on what he say . . . as long as he looks to white folks for approval . . . then he ain't never gonna find out who he is and what he's about.
If you want to support a writer, produce the first five plays he writes.
― August Wilson Quotes
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
