"When I first started writing plays I couldn't write good dialogue because I didn't respect how black people talked. I thought that in order to make art out of their dialogue I had to change it, make it into something different. Once I learned to value and respect my characters, I could really hear them. I let them start talking."

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Source: August Wilson, Laurence Fishburne (2008). “Two trains running”

About the author

August Wilson

Playwright, Screenwriter

August Wilson was a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright known for his powerful exploration of African American life through his ten-play cycle, 'The Pittsburgh Cycle.'

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