playwrights-from-the-united-states

"When will the Americans learn, that if they would encourage liberty in other countries, they must practice it at home?"

"A free-wheeling conversation with Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee 9 March, 2021"

". But because they are in some ways the beneficiaries of racism-they are racists!"

"we gave ourselves permission to have other partners if we wished to"

"Feminine sensibilities are not being acknowledged, and we’ve allowed the antipeople to steal the children and are tolerating far too much: the assault on ourselves, the families of the world, permitting war and rape."

"It is a dastardly crime and an insult to the word democracy to make a commodity of jailing people."

"In the world of entertainment, the problem for African-American artists is "lack of access to the levels of power"

"I don't know who I would be if I weren't this child from Harlem, this woman from Harlem. It's in me so deep"

"I never thought about myself as an activist when we were coming along"

"I usually played good girl wives and mothers. And truthfully those good-girl roles were stretches"

"they were just tasting a little teeny bit of what was racism and fascism and the horror of what was happening in the country"

"Critics still see blacks as 'the other,' an 'exotic"

"Staying on the path of something you’re trying to create has much to do with having confidence in yourself and in your capacity to realize the things you want out of life"

"I dream of getting prisons off the stock exchange"

"There is still a patronizing attitude in the media towards African-Americans"

"in a marriage loyalty and fidelity and trust cannot be compromised."

"Racism undercuts confidence. I wish I had known that sooner"

"If I could be - somebody could think of me and feel encouraged"

"I am an actress, wife, mother, and own my own home and I have never seen my experiences reflected on the screen."

"I love the people I love. I didn't care whether they could be a Democrat, Republican, communist ... anything but a racist"

"It occurred to me that being what they call 'colored,' being a Negro, was some kind of a disadvantage"

"When African-Americans are on screen, they've usually got guns."

"The worries and fears about personal lacks are immobilizing and make me dream the dream too long"

"I felt envious of what I thought was the male prerogative"

"The Divine Impulse—it’s always safe to follow it"

"the dreams stay in my head, they haunt me, they push me and become a kick to my consciousness, making me act"

"More women are becoming enraged about these things and I think we’re on the verge of doing something about them"

"My constant battle is putting aside time wasters, and I have to watch out for procrastination"

"We have to bring forward the graces in life and make them real"

"We have to institute democracy, which is still mostly an aspiration, and universal love, which is still unrealized"

"Preserving the family means everything to our community now"

"I didn't care about being integrated or accepted"

"You may tempt the upper classes With your villainous demi-tasses, But — Heaven will protect a working girl!"

"If our religions aren't about the business of achieving justice in our time, in this world, for everyone, what are they doing?"

"They were expanding the same amount of energy not to put on a show. As if to say, "This is your home and you're welcome here as you are." I think it's important to note that that takes work: family doesn't just happen; welcome isn't a neutral state. We have to tend to these things."

"Here lies a spendthrift who believed That only those who spend may keep; Who scattered seeds, yet never grieved Because a stranger came to reap."

"It is cruel for a woman with her man gone, An' the younguns allus hungry, an' winter comin' on."

"Compassionate the mountains rise Dim with the wistful dimness of old eyes That, having looked on life time out of mind, Know that the simple gift of being kind Is greater than all the wisdom of the wise."

"You could not give me toys in those bleak days; So when my playmates proudly boasted theirs, You caught me to the shelter of your arms, And taught me how to laugh away my tears."

"Porgy lived in the Golden Age. Not the Golden Age of a remote and legendary past; nor yet the chimerical era treasured by every man past middle life, that never existed except in the heart of youth; but an age when men, not yet old, were boys in an ancient, beautiful city that time had forgotten before it destroyed."

"On the isle of Pago Pago, land of palm trees, rice and sago, Where the Chinaman and Dago dwell with natives dusky hued, Lived a dissolute and shady, bold adventuress named Sadie, Sadie Thompson was the lady, and the life she lived was lewd."

"The monk says, "That's a joke on me, for that there dame to croak on me. I hadn't oughter passed her up the time I had the chance.""

"Let us veil the tragic sequel, for a pious man but weak will Find, alas, that he's unequal to a lady's potent charms. So his long suppressed libido, sharp as steel of famed Toledo, Spurning prayers and hymns and credo, found surcease in Sadie's arms."

"If a man builds a better mousetrap than his neighbor, the world will not only beat a path to his door, it will make newsreels of him and his wife in beach pajamas, it will discuss his diet and his health, it will publish heart-throb stories of his love life, it will publicize him, analyze him, photograph him, and make his life thoroughly miserable by feeding to the palpitant public intimate details of things that are none of its damned business."

"Jack Spink was fond of drink, His wife preferred to eat; For eats is eats and wets is wets And never the twain shall meet."

"In Spain, where the courtly Castilian hidalgo twangs lightly each night his romantic guitar, Where the castanets clink on the gay piazetta, and strains of fandangoes are heard from afar, There lived, I am told, a bold hussy named Carmen, a pampered young vamp full of devil and guile. Cigarette and cigar men were smitten with Carmen; from near and from far men were caught with her smile."

"But here's our friend José, who seizes her bridle. A wild homicidal glint gleams in his eye. He's mad and disgusted and cries out, "You've busted the heart that once trusted you. Wed me, or die!" Though Carmen is frightened at how this scene might end, I'm forced to admit she is game to the last. She says to him "Banish the notion and vanish! Vamos! which is Spanish for "run away fast." A scream and a struggle! She reels and she staggers, for Don José's dagger's plunged deep in her breast. No more will she flirt in her old way, that's certain. So ring down the curtain, poor Carmen's at rest."

"One time, in Alexandria, in wicked Alexandria, Where nights were wild with revelry and life was but a game, There lived, so the report is, an adventuress and courtesan, The pride of Alexandria, and Thais was her name."

"I'm a Yankee Doodle dandy, A Yankee Doodle do or die; A real live nephew of my Uncle Sam's Born on the Fourth of July."

"I'm no cranky hanky panky, I'm a dead square honest Yankee And I'm mighty proud of that old flag that flies for Uncle Sam Though I don't believe in raving, ev'ry time I see it waving There's a chill runs up my back that makes me glad I'm what I am."