- Birthday, Books, Quotes, Reading, Theater, Writing

“I am a writer. I am going to write.”

Happy birthday, Lorraine Hansberry! Here are some quotes from the great playwright.

“Look at the world that awaits you!”

“Write if you will: but write about the world as it is and as you think it ought to be and must be—if there is to be a world. Write about all the things that men have written about since the beginning of writing and talking—but write to a point. Work hard at it, care about it. Write about our people: tell their story. You have something glorious to draw on begging for attention. Don’t pass it up. You have something glorious to draw on begging for attention. Don’t pass it up. Use it.”

“I wish to live because life has within it that which is good, that which is beautiful, and that which is love.”

“[T]here is only one large circle that we march in, around and around, each of us with our own little picture—in front of us—our own little mirage that we think is the future.”

“And as of today, if I am asked abroad if I am a free citizen of the United States of America, I must only say what is true: No.”

“There is always something left to love. And if you ain’t learned that, you ain’t learned nothing.”

“Never be afraid to sit a while and think.”

“Eventually it comes to you: the thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must also make you lonely.” 

 

 

  • John Madera is the author of Nervosities (Anti-Oedipus Press, 2024). His other fiction is published in Conjunctions, Salt Hill, The &Now Awards 2: The Best Innovative Writing, and many other journals. His nonfiction is published in American Book Review, Bookforum, The Review of Contemporary Fiction, Rain Taxi: Review of Books, The Believer, The Brooklyn Rail, and many other venues. Recipient of an M.F.A. in Literary Arts from Brown University, New York State Council on the Arts awardee John Madera lives in New York City, Rhizomatic and manages and edits Big Other.

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