David Henry Hwang Quotes

• I'm happy. Which often looks like crazy.

  David Henry Hwang

  Crazy, Looks

  David Henry Hwang (1993). “M. Butterfly: With an Afterword by the Playwright”, p.54, Penguin

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• To me to write well is to battle stereotypes. To write well is to create three-dimensional characters that seem human.

  David Henry Hwang

  Writing, Character, Battle

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• . . . I felt I was finally in a position to affect not only the artistic content of the American theatre, but also its institutional structures. This has been an important goal of mine, as there have always been a variety of issues - artistic freedom, author's rights, access by minority groups - which have concerned me and even influenced my decision to become a playwright in the first place.

  David Henry Hwang

  Rights, Issues, Goal

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• It's the stories that make my heart beat faster ...those are the ones to write about

  David Henry Hwang

  Writing, Heart, Stories

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• We are all prisoners of our time and place.

  David Henry Hwang

  Prisoner, Our Time

  David Henry Hwang (1988). “M. Butterfly”, p.38, Dramatists Play Service Inc

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• Now I see -- we are always most revolted by the things hidden within us.

  David Henry Hwang

  David Henry Hwang (1989). “M. Butterfly”, Plume

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• I define the American dream as the ability to imagine a way that you want your life to turn out, and have a reasonable hope that you can achieve that.

  David Henry Hwang

  Dream, Want, Way

  "Great Expectations, And Some Hope Of Meeting Them". "Morning Edition" with Renee Montagne, www.nhpr.org. June 28, 2012.

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• Why, in the Peking Opera, are women's roles played by men?...Because only a man knows how a woman is supposed to act.

  David Henry Hwang

  Men, Opera, Roles

  David Henry Hwang (1988). “M. Butterfly”, p.49, Dramatists Play Service Inc

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• Yes, I am one of those people who feels that most of my work is adaptation of one sort or another. For me, it's a way to jump-start the engine. For example, some people use the technique of basing a character on a friend. They start writing with his or her voice, then at a certain point, the character takes off on his or her own. It probably no longer resembles the model, but it helped the author to get going. I find that's true of form, too. For every play I've written, I know what play I was trying to imitate. That helps me get going.

  David Henry Hwang

  Writing, Character, Play

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• Consider it this way: what would you say if a blond homecoming queen fell in love with a short Japanese businessman? He treats her cruelly, then goes home for three years, during which time she prays to his picture and turns down marriage from a young Kennedy. Then, when she learns he has remarried, she kills herself. Now I believe you should consider this girl to be a deranged idiot, correct? But because it's an Oriental who kills herself for a Westerner–ah!–you find it beautiful.

  David Henry Hwang

  Beautiful, Girl, Queens

  "M. Butterfly". Play by David Henry Hwang, February 10, 1988.

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• The West believes the East, deep down, wants to be dominated, because a woman can’t think for herself

  David Henry Hwang

  Believe, Thinking, East

  David Henry Hwang (1989). “M. Butterfly”, Plume

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• I knew I was Chinese, but growing up, it never occurred to me that that had any particular implication or that it should differentiate me in any way. I thought it was a minor detail, like having red hair.

  David Henry Hwang

  Growing Up, Hair, Chinese

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• Sometimes I hate you, sometimes I hate myself, but always I miss you

  David Henry Hwang

  Hate, Missing, Sometimes

  David Henry Hwang (1988). “M. Butterfly”, p.30, Dramatists Play Service Inc

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• This is the ultimate cruelty, isn't it? That I can talk and talk and to anyone listening, it's only air--too rich a diet to be swallowed by a mundane world.

  David Henry Hwang

  Air, Listening, World

  David Henry Hwang (1988). “M. Butterfly”, p.58, Dramatists Play Service Inc

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• There's a reason why the form was originally silent

  David Henry Hwang

  Reason Why, Silent, Reason

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• Tonight, I've finally learned to tell fantasy from reality. And, knowing the difference, I choose fantasy.

  David Henry Hwang

  Reality, Differences, Knowing

  David Henry Hwang (1993). “M. Butterfly: With an Afterword by the Playwright”, p.71, Penguin

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• I've never quite understood the idea of a "season." Whenever an artistic director says to me, 'I have this slot,' I always start to feel we're parking cars or something.

  David Henry Hwang

  Ideas, Car, Theatre

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• I now know that to do a worthwhile family history I must interpret the past without falling into either demonizing or unquestioning acceptance. . . . As a playwright, what I object to right now is any form of fundamentalism, whether it's nationalistic, religious or ethnic. . . . I think it is ridiculous - and fundamentalist, by the way - to say that I am not changed by the culture around me.

  David Henry Hwang

  Religious, Fall, Acceptance

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• Time flies when you’re being stupid.

  David Henry Hwang

  Stupid, Time Flies, Being Stupid

  David Henry Hwang (1988). “M. Butterfly”, p.9, Dramatists Play Service Inc

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• I visited a new cultural center in Shanghai in 2005 that was pretty much perfect, except for the really badly translated Chinglish signs: a handicapped restroom that said Deformed Mans Toilet, that kind of thing.

  David Henry Hwang

  Perfect, Toilets, Kind

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• I felt pretty good growing up. I didnt feel a lot of prejudice or racism. But I do remember, if there was going to be a movie or a television show with Asian characters, I would go out of my way to avoid them, because they portrayed all Asians as either ridiculously good or ridiculously bad; you know, the whole Charlie Chan-Fu Manchu thing.

  David Henry Hwang

  Growing Up, Character, Racism

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• Chinese culture in general is not very religious. Confucianism is more a code of ethics than a religion, and ancestor worship is a way for parents to control you even after theyre dead.

  David Henry Hwang

  Religious, Parent, Chinese

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• Originally the structure was . . . a modern narrator who would appear intermittently and talk about his memories of his grandmother, which would then be juxtaposed against scenes from the past. But the stories from the past were always more interesting that the things in the present. I find this almost endemic to modern plays that veer between past and present. . . . So as we've gone on developing GOLDEN CHILD, the scenes from the past have become more dominant, and all that remains of the present are these two little bookends that frame the action.

  David Henry Hwang

  Children, Memories, Grandmother

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• Yellow Face marks my summation of multiculturalism.

  David Henry Hwang

  Yellow, Faces, Mark

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• Ive studied Chinese in college, but basically, Im not bilingual.

  David Henry Hwang

  College, Chinese

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