August Wilson - Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1985)

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White folks don't understand the blues. They hear it come out, but they don't know how it got there. They don't understand that's life's way of talking. You don't sing to feel better. You sing 'cause that's a way of understanding life.

August Wilson

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.

August Wilson

Life ain't shit. You can put it in a paper bag and carry it around with you. It ain't got no balls. Now death... death got some style! Death will kick your ass and make you wish you never been born! That's how bad death is! But you can rule over life. Life ain't nothing!

August Wilson

Style ain't nothing but keeping the same idea from beginning to end. Everybody got it.

August Wilson