Suzan-Lori Parks
Suzan-Lori Parks
Suzan-Lori Parksis an American playwright, screenwriter and novelist. Her 2001 play Topdog/Underdog won the Pulitzer Prize in 2002; Parks is the first African American woman to achieve this honor...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth10 May 1963
CountryUnited States of America
writing play despair
The writing of Topdog was a great gift. I feel the play came to me because I realized that my circumstances, while causing me despair and heartbreak, also held great possibility, if only I could see it.
beautiful black-and-white moon
I love beautiful black-and-white movies - anything Bette Davis, especially Now, Voyager, Casablanca, Mildred Pierce; anything by Orson Welles, Truffaut, or Godard; and Paper Moon by Peter Bogdanovich.
father army library
My father was in the Army and we moved around a lot, and one of my favorite places was the library.
mean writing thinking
I don't consciously start writing a play that involves issues. After it's done, I sit back like everyone else and think about what it means.
reflection opportunity compassion
I realized that my circumstances, while causing me despair and heartbreak, also held great possibility, if only I could see it. I knew that I was learning one of the most important lessons of my life: that instead of waiting for the perfect opportunity, I should work toward a realization that every opportunity is perfect. Each moment is perfect and heaven-sent, in that each moment holds the seeds for growth. Difficulty creates the opportunity for self-reflection and compassion.
distance writing play
Every play I write is about love and distance. And time. And from that we can get things like history.
heaven-sent perfect growth
Each moment is perfect and heaven-sent, in that each moment holds the seeds for growth.
inspirational opportunity perfect
I knew that I was learning one of the most important lessons of my life: that instead of waiting for the perfect opportunity, I should work toward a realization that every opportunity is perfect.
Youre only yourself when no ones watching!
writing thinking mirrors
Some people think I am an issue-oriented writer, but I've never said to myself, I'm gong to write about such-and-such an issue - that would make for incredibly boring writing, at least to my taste. Creating someone I don't know and her made-up world shows us more about who we are - is actually a better mirror - than if I were to parade in front of you an instantly recognizable person in an instantly recognizable situation. I'm not saying, Let's make it all abstract and weird and difficult and thereby you will know more about yourself. My process is much more organic than that.
play ideas space
My plays are for the kind of black people who relate to funk music, to Parliament-Funkadelic. When those guys get out of a spaceship - the idea that black people are from outer space, theres a poetic truth to that. We are this vast people.
play house crafts
The first time I went over to [my director's] house, he said to me, This is a very strange play. I was pleased that he reminded me of that. [He] understands the play [VENUS] intellectually and emotionally and the humor, the funny bone.
writing sweat two
The writer has two kinds of faith: actual writing and sitting openly. Have faith in your personal effort or sweat. And faith in God, or whatever you want to call it. Then the voices will come. Faith is the big deal.
opportunity compassion reflection
Difficulty creates the opportunity for self-reflection and compassion.