August Wilson: Writing is Rewarding

I don't write particularly to effect social change. I believe writing can do that, but that's not why I write.

Keep your hands moving. Writing is rewriting.

My plays are ultimately about love, honor, duty, betrayal.

Anything you want to know, you ask the characters.

I try to explore, in terms of the life I know best, those things which are common to all cultures.

I don't look at our society today too much. My focus is still in the past, and part of the reason is because what I do - the wellspring of art, or what I do - l get from the blues. So I listen to the music of a particular period that I'm working on, and I think inside the music is clues to what is happening with the people.