American Quotes

Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.

History is a relay of revolutions.

Tactics mean doing what you can with what you have.

Last guys don't finish nice.

Always remember the first rule of power tactics; power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.

A racially integrated community is a chronological term timed from the entrance of the first black family to the exit of the last white family.

The greatest enemy of individual freedom is the individual himself.

We must believe that it is the darkest before the dawn of a beautiful new world. We will see it when we believe it.

Life is a corrupting process from the time a child learns to play his mother off against his father in the politics of when to go to bed; he who fears corruption fears life.

Change means movement. Movement means friction. Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict.

Once you accept your own death, all of a sudden you're free to live. You no longer care about your reputation. You no longer care except so far as your life can be used tactically to promote a cause you believe in.

To me the voice has always been the way to start any character. Once I find that, I'm good to go.

There are so many remarkable playwrights working right now, that I see everything I can. Annie Baker is a genius, I'll see anything she writes. The same for Lynn Nottage, Cynthia Hopkins, and Lisa D'Amour. Anything they've got going on, I'll go see.

Oh, I love to read more than anything. I always love the 'New Stories From the South' anthologies - I think it's the best short fiction collection anywhere, just filled with treasures.

My grandmother had six kids - one died as an infant - and she was dirt-poor, and all her kids got an education. And my mom grew up poor. And they both worked so hard and cultivated so much of their own happiness. I wanted to have that like an amulet. Not like armor, but like a magic feather. Like Du

My dad, like many Southern men, is this very emotionally expressive person who isn't as articulate in words about his feelings as he is with breaking a chair or something like that.

My dad doesn't like religion much, but I grew up very close to the Baptist tradition. God isn't this distant thing. God is right here with you all the time. He's your buddy, and you can talk about everything.

Mostly I do Iyengar. I like anything that's hard enough to make me cry in class. I like to be pushed over my limit and broken down a little bit.

It absolutely helped - to write the father in both 'Juicy' and 'Beasts,' I had to see the whole story from his point of view. All of a sudden I understood more of what my own father must be going through - the fear, the frustration, the anger... the hope that he'll leave a legacy.

If you have a perfectionist streak - and who doesn't? - running can kill the perfectionist inside you.

I wasn't the best waitress in the world, but I was cheerful and worked hard.

I was a really bad teenager and I got my tongue pierced. I don't even remember where I did it, but it was under very surreptitious circumstances.

I think artists need the freedom to fail and I gave myself that freedom.

I can't write about rich people having relationship problems and breaking up in New York. I don't know that world of Terrence McNally. I knew I had to write people who talk the way I talk. And they talked very different than Terrence McNally.

I always felt like there wasn't a blueprint for father-daughter relationships - for them or for us. Because what are they supposed to do with us, treat us like boys, or small women, or what? Father-daughter relationships are so unique from family to family, and I'd love to watch it explored more ons

Working with Bill Cosby was incredible. I was lucky to be a part of that.

Will Smith said if I ever need some help, he was there for me.

Videos are more like photography. It's not as much about trying to tell a story as it is creating images.

Is America truly a democracy? Has America ever been a democracy with the institution of slavery?

I'm going to go to school. It doesn't matter what the outcome is as long as I did it. I can say I did it.