It was a mistake to believe that other people were not living as deeply as you were. Besides, you were not even living that deeply.
INTERVIEWER
Do you try to push through a first draft as quick as possible, or do you take your time with it?
PARKS
These days, to stay organized, I outline. Images or actions, actions or dialogue, it’s all the same. In the first draft, it doesn’t need to be written right, it just needs to …
I was very low-key and quiet, but I was developing a strength inside. At parties, I wasn’t one of those people who could work a room. I’d be over in the corner by the bookshelf, but I was tuning my ears, my literary ears. I would spend a lot of time working on my writing, and that gave me a quiet c…
Tiffany’s older brother was more interesting than either Tiffany or her ruffled bedroom. When she introduced us, I felt burnished by his attention, the kind I’d already become an expert at detecting. I could feel a man’s gaze when it sharpened with interest, like the birds who flitted at the feeder…
There were flies in every room that summer. Windows open, rolled
pages of newsprint at the ready in our grips.
