Suzan-Lori Parks Interview (page: 7 / 7) Pulitzer Prize for Drama	Print Interview

You mentioned that you try to avoid reading articles about yourself, but you couldn't have avoided hearing about your Pulitzer Prize and your MacArthur Genius Grant.

Suzan-Lori Parks: They call you on the phone, at least they called me. I was with some people at the Public Theater, and they just said, "Go sit in that room."

Get the Flash Player to see this video. They said, "Oh, you're going to have a meeting with George Wolfe," and I said, "Oh, okay." And George is so busy, he's late, and I'm sitting there going, "Oh, he's late," and all of a sudden, someone came and said, "Go sit in that room, and wait in that room," and I'm like, "Oh, okay." So I went and waited in a room with a phone, and the phone rang. They said pick up the phone, and it was the Pulitzer people. The MacArthur people were even weirder. They just called on the phone, just at my house, and I just said, "Hi. Who's this?" and I said, "No! You're shitting. No! You're kidding. No, no. Oh, shit. Oh." That was before the Pulitzer. So they were giving me prizes.

Did all that recognition feel like a heavier pressure on you, or do you just try not to think about it?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Suzan-Lori Parks: The fine print of every prize you win -- no matter for what, the Gold Medal in the Olympics or what, doesn't matter -- the fine print is that you're actually being summoned to spread kindness and compassion in the universe. That's actually what you're being called to do. So winning a Pulitzer is actually, "I'm being called to spread kindness and compassion." So that's what the real burden, if you will, is about. It's not about writing. Writing is just the task I've been given to do, so I can do something, while I'm actually being summoned continually to spread kindness and compassion.

[ Key to Success ] Integrity

I think it's kind of a trick. I think the Creator is a trickster. But I do think that that's the fine print of these prizes, that you're summoned to spread kindness and compassion. The writing is something I do, so that I can be given a prize, so that I can then actually spread kindness and compassion in the universe. If someone had just called me up and said, "Hey, go spread kindness and compassion..." I'd be like, "Huh?" You know what I mean? But they give you the prize, and then you're there. It's a tricky business.

Have you ever experienced a dark period, or writer's block?

Suzan-Lori Parks: All the time. Someone was telling me that Bishop Desmond Tutu was cracking a joke this morning that was like a brilliant God knock-knock joke. I love that. The fact that Bishop Desmond Tutu, who has witnessed great difficulty, is telling knock-knock jokes, it made me go, "Yeah. It's true that you can experience difficulty." The difficulties I have experienced are not comparable to what he's experienced, but you can experience difficulty and, quote-unquote "dark times" and still recall the unbearable lightness of being.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I have writer's block all the time, but I write anyway. I have difficult days all the time, but I haul myself up. I think that's very important. Some folks think that if you have some success in a field that it's been Easy Street, a level road all the time. We can even look at people like Lance Armstrong. He has to ride up all those hills to win his prizes. We all do. We're all in the Tour de France every day. We're all like that. Folks coming up in the arts, or in any kind of profession should know that all of us are climbing mountains every day. Yeah, I have writer's block all the time, but I write anyway. I don't mind, like, "Oh, this is crap!" I don't care. I can make it better, 'cause I rewrite, and then I make it better.

[ Key to Success ] Perseverance

That's another thing, for people out there who are writers. Write and then rewrite. Don't do both at the same time. I usually write a draft from beginning to end, and then I rewrite the draft. So it's two different ways of working.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. When I'm writing, it's as if I am sitting in a garden, like a jungle where everything grows, and when I am rewriting, I'm riding on a horse through a field, brandishing a beautiful sword, the sword of discrimination -- not racial discrimination -- but discernment, I suppose you'd call it, a sword of discrimination. I am brandishing the sword, and there's music, like Wagner playing, bumpa-da-bum-bum, and I'm cutting everything that doesn't belong. So there's writing, and there's rewriting. I enjoy both.

[ Key to Success ] Preparation

That's a great image. Did you actually study acting in London?

Suzan-Lori Parks: For a year, yeah, I did, so I could be a better writer. I didn't want to be an actor, but I wanted to be a better playwright, and I thought that's the way to do it. You study acting.

Do you think that helps?

Suzan-Lori Parks: Yeah. I'm a ham. It helped me become more of a ham, a ham hock. I think it did help, because instead of the kind of writer who is shy and doesn't like to read her work out loud, it helped me become even more of an outgoing type of writer. Even though I'm not an outgoing person, I'm an outgoing public person.

Were you ever tempted to go further in that direction?

Suzan-Lori Parks: Acting? No. I couldn't. Acting is tricky, because I would always want to acknowledge the presence of the people in the audience. It was hard for me to pretend for an extended period of time that they weren't there. As a writer, I could be all the people on stage. I could be in all places at once. That was enough for my sort of psyche, but as an actor I would always want to look at the people.

Writing is still related to acting, because you're creating a character.

Suzan-Lori Parks: Exactly. But you're creating all the characters. For an actor to do that, I don't think that's good acting, but for a writer to do that! Like Shakespeare, one of my favorite writers, he was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. When you look at his plays, he was everywhere. That's the reason I love his plays so much. In other plays, you see one character who is the voice of the author. In Shakespeare, there is no one character, he's everywhere. He's in every character, which is what I strive to do. I want to be in all the characters at the same time. So it's different from acting. I think good acting is where you are your character only. I don't know much about acting. I only did it for a year, so I'm not sure.

What are you working on now? We read about a Ray Charles project.

Suzan-Lori Parks: Ray Charles Live, we're working on that. We're going to premier it at the Pasadena Playhouse on November 9, 2007, three days before 365 Days/365 Plays closes. That's the plan anyway. There's a movie called Cabrini Green, and two plays and a novel and some songs, those are my little things I'm doing. It will all happen.

Do you work with your husband on the songs?

Suzan-Lori Parks: I play them for Paul. "Hey, honey, how do you like this?" He's like, "Damn girl, you're a folkie." Paul is the best ear to listen to my work. He's always the one I go to first, last, and in the middle. I read everything to him. Nothing goes out of the house without me saying, "Honey, you got to tell me what you think," and he gives excellent feedback. Perfect.

Well, he's a musician. He must have a good ear.

Suzan-Lori Parks: He has a great ear. He has a great ear and a great eye. A great visual sense. He says, "That don't lay right." It has to lay right. Another favorite thing he says is "the concept of talent is overrated."

Get the Flash Player to see this video. The concept of talent is overrated. The real gift is the gift of love. So what happens is you fall in love with something, like you fall in love with an instrument, or you fall in love with a craft like writing, or you fall in love with the legal system and want to be a lawyer. So what happens is you fall in love with something, and you want to practice that something all the time, and then hard work at it begets talent for it, and I just think that's pretty groovy.

[ Key to Success ] Passion

Yeah. So he's a smart cookie.

Well, thank you for a great interview.

Suzan-Lori Parks: Thank you so much. Thank you for excellent questions. I really appreciate it.

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