Quotes from Katori Hall

I have so many different voices and stories to tell.

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

Like most playwrights, I hate talkbacks with a passion that can burn a hole through hell.

I feel a responsibility to continue creating complex roles for black women, especially young black women.

I never, ever read the comments below an article on the Web. People are mean. I'm a human being.

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

Most of the time, when I'm writing, I'm writing for myself. I'm thinking, 'What will my character say at this time? What will come out of her mouth?' I create individuals so real to me, I sometimes start talking to them. Then I let them loose on the page.

I started writing because I got so frustrated that there weren't enough plays that had roles for young black women in them.

I'll never be August Wilson - but what I can be is more of myself.

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.

Through school, I saw plenty of theatre my parents weren't necessarily up on. They would prefer a football game to watching 'The Nutcracker,' and that's fine. I enjoy both.

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.

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.

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

I feel the feminist movement has excluded black women. You cannot talk about being black and a woman within traditional feminist dialogue.

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

I'm very Southern in the way I walk in the world. I love to laugh. I love to eat. I love to hug people. But if somebody makes me mad, my neck may roll. I can be aggressive with a Southern twang.

Sometimes, unfortunately, hatred is more powerful than progress.

I used to think people above me might get jealous because I wanted to do what they did. But no, people are much nicer than that.

I can only speak for myself, but when I was growing up in Memphis - and having the Martin Luther King holiday and the moment of pause on April 4th - he was just a statue to me. I wanted to make him a little bit more real to me as a human being.

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

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

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