LYNN NOTTAGE

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

I need a release from whatever I'm writing.

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.

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.

I'm a schizophrenic writer.

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.'

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

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.

Each play I write has its own unique origin story.

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.

It is such a joy to join a legacy of amazing female playwrights who have managed to break through the glass ceiling and reinvigorate the Broadway stage by bringing a fresh and necessary perspective.

I'm interested in people who are dwelling outside the mainstream. And very often, those people happen to be woman of color.

In my family history, there are generations of women who were abandoned by men. It's one of the themes of my family.

I'm a contemporary playwright in a postmodern world.

When you're fighting for an increasingly smaller portion of the pie, you turn against each other; you create reasons to hate each other.

People probably have different philosophies about this, but I think that when you're first shaping the play and trying to find a character, the initial actors that develop it end up imprinting on it - you hear their voices; you hear their rhythms. You can't help but to begin to write toward them during the rehearsal process.

Ultimately, we're incredibly resilient creatures. People really do get on with the business of living.

Like Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, I try to balance reality with how we'd like the world to be.

My grandfather was a Pullman porter, and my father put his way through college by cleaning floors at night in the libraries. I understand that working people are in some way the bedrock of my existence and the existence of many people here.

The people sometimes who are closest to us are the ones who bear the brunt of our frustration.

Replace judgment with curiosity.