Suzan-Lori Parks

“The plays should have the half-life of plutonium.”

— Suzan-Lori Parks

I like to give and get basically anything (I love to read) but especially fiction and poetry.

— Suzan-Lori Parks

Be bold. Envision yourself living a life that you love. Believe, even if you can only muster your faith for just this…

— Suzan-Lori Parks

Quality is like quantity, but there's a lot less of it.

— Suzan-Lori Parks

I don't consciously start writing a play that involves issues. After it's done, I sit back like everyone else and think about…

— Suzan-Lori Parks

The writer has two kinds of faith: actual writing and sitting openly. Have faith in your personal effort or sweat. And faith…

— Suzan-Lori Parks

My father was in the Army and we moved around a lot, and one of my favorite places was the library.

— Suzan-Lori Parks

I learned that if we embrace what's happening, we are also embracing what is possible - and a road opens up for…

— Suzan-Lori Parks

My plays are for the kind of black people who relate to funk music, to Parliament-Funkadelic. When those guys get out of…

— Suzan-Lori Parks

I knew that I was learning one of the most important lessons of my life: that instead of waiting for the perfect…

— Suzan-Lori Parks

The first time I went over to [my director's] house, he said to me, This is a very strange play. I was…

— Suzan-Lori Parks

One could get locked in by the Pulitzer, thinking, 'This is who I am.' Doors open with it, but doors in your…

— Suzan-Lori Parks

People ask me when I decided to become a playwright, and I tell them I decide to do it every day. Most…

— Suzan-Lori Parks

I realized that my circumstances, while causing me despair and heartbreak, also held great possibility, if only I could see it. I…

— Suzan-Lori Parks

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…

— Suzan-Lori Parks

I love beautiful black-and-white movies - anything Bette Davis, especially 'Now', 'Voyager', 'Casablanca', 'Mildred Pierce'; anything by Orson Welles, Truffaut, or Godard;…

— Suzan-Lori Parks

I don't care what anybody says. Stick to the spirit of the play and you're doing it right. It's about embracing the…

— Suzan-Lori Parks

I love my lecture tours. I get up onstage. I have my stack of books and a glass of water and a…

— Suzan-Lori Parks

Each moment is perfect and heaven-sent, in that each moment holds the seeds for growth.

— Suzan-Lori Parks

Every play I write is about love and distance. And time. And from that we can get things like history.

— Suzan-Lori Parks

“you're only yourself when no ones watching!”

— Suzan-Lori Parks

Youre only yourself when no ones watching!

— Suzan-Lori Parks

And as you walk yr road, as you live yr life, RELISH THE ROAD. And relish the fact that the road of…

— Suzan-Lori Parks

Difficulty creates the opportunity for self-reflection and compassion.

— Suzan-Lori Parks

Being a playwright of any race is difficult, and Lord knows it gets more difficult the further you get from the middle…

— Suzan-Lori Parks