David Henry Hwang
David Henry Hwang
David Henry Hwangis a Tony Award-winning American playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and theater professor...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth11 August 1957
CountryUnited States of America
reality differences knowing
Tonight, I've finally learned to tell fantasy from reality. And, knowing the difference, I choose fantasy.
yellow faces mark
Yellow Face marks my summation of multiculturalism.
growing-up character racism
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.
perfect toilets kind
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.
honor dishonor
Death with honor is better than life... life with dishonor.
school guarantees wells
Well, there's no guarantee of failure in life like happiness in high school.
air listening world
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.
stupid time-flies being-stupid
Time flies when you’re being stupid.
believe thinking want
The West believes the East, deep down, wants to be dominated, because a woman can’t think for herself
hate missing sometimes
Sometimes I hate you, sometimes I hate myself, but always I miss you
prisoner our-time
We are all prisoners of our time and place.
ideas car theatre
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.
heart writing stories
It's the stories that make my heart beat faster ...those are the ones to write about
rights issues goal
. . . 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.