Ntozake Shange's Quotes
Born: 1948-10-18
Profession: Playwright
Nation: American
Biography of Ntozake Shange
I'm a firm believer that language and how we use language determines how we act, and how we act then determines our lives and other people's lives.
Tags: Act, Language, LivesIf anything is life-changing, being the descendant of a slave is.
Tags: Descendant, SlaveI started writing because there's an absence of things I was familiar with or that I dreamed about. One of my senses of anger is related to this vacancy - a yearning I had as a teenager... and when I get ready to write, I think I'm trying to fill that.
Tags: Anger, Trying, WritingI write for young girls of color, for girls who don't even exist yet, so that there is something there for them when they arrive. I can only change how they live, not how they think.
Tags: Change, Write, YoungWhite people use their literature to maintain culture. That's why you find references to Milton and Spencer and Shakespeare and Dostoyevsky in contemporary novels.
Tags: Culture, Literature, Why