Sarah Bird: I guess is that because you don't see other people out there
Lynda King: It's harder not only in an internal sense, people are like, the first thing they do is they start talking 'well' they say, 'have you thought of writing for the theatre?'
[00:27] SB: For what?
LK: For the theatre, 'cause they can see that as an obtainable goal, alright, um, my mother once said, 'um even if you only get one poem published', I've had dozens of poems published, but 'even if you only get one poem published I'll be happy.' So people, whatever their perception, you know they they- you know, so you have to be the one to have the big vision. You know you have to say 'no that's there, down there is where they were going, I'm going up there. You know, I'm already up there!
[01:01] SB: Right.
LK: I just have to beat myself, you know
SB: Yeah, yeah. Do think that you've struggled with, with um realizing that you were an artist more than you would if you had a different family background or if you weren't a woman or any of that, if your family was more comfortable with it, or…I guess I'm assuming too much to say that your family was uncomfortable with it
[01:27] LK: Yeah, I don't know. I cant really- I can only speak of my context.
SB: Right.
[01:32] LK: and I can say that it was difficult. I can say, I could see, you know I was good in political science, very analytical, you know I have a great appetite for reading. I tried to do other things cause its huge to turn your life to the big picture. I mean it's so much more challenging to step through that door but if you keep stepping through the little doors and your too big to fit, you have no choice but to go through he bigger door. I mean you do, you could die or just you know, get depressed, go into an asylum or something, I think that's the choice for a very strong drive. You know.
[02:24] SB: When you were in London and you were deciding whether to be an actress or, um, and then you decided that that wasn't practical did you come back to the states and then decide that writing was really for you, I mean you were writing through that whole time…
[02:37] LK: No. I didn't decide immediately that writing was for me at that time, I think, um, I got fired, and I was kind of glad and I um...
SB: What were you doing?
[02:52] LK: Oh, I was working for the state and I, and I um I went on a writing course and I it was just- it was just compelling to me and then I got stuck and I couldn't write and I um but it was so important to me and so I just stuck with it, the best I could and um and you know as I said I applied, saw this job advertised to be a junior editor for Our Bodies, Ourselves
SB: Right, right, right, right.
[03:30] LK: And I said ok that's- cause I at that point I had written a novel and I was all about following my trajectory as a writer, and so I was looking of what I thought would be good for me as a writer not what would be practical or whether I could do it but what are my dreams and I got this job.
SB: yeah
[03:56] LK: I had never been a junior editor anywhere, there were a hundred applicants for the job, and I got it so for me that was like the universe saying yes. When Jeannette Winterson invited me to Pandora Press and said yes, that was a sign from the universe. Last year I spoke with Sydney Poitier for fifteen minutes, by phone, do you know who he is?
[04:20] SB: No.
LK: Sydney Poitier was the man who led the way as an actor for all other male actors, he opened doors, he was in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? He was in, he's been in much more, many more recent films but I'm thinking of films that you might know of he was in.
[04:41] SB: Hmm, I definitely know the name, I just couldn't place him at all.
LK: Right ok, right, he is one of the most important African American, he is the mold for Denzel Washington. Ok? Ok. And um, what happened was, I was going through another one of my transitions, where see, the thing about it is, if you are an artist, even if you try to escape it you're going to keep coming back to it, cause that's who you are. So I'm facing it, I'm turning around facing it again and I'm like 'oh my god' I love being here at the Piano Factory cause at least I'm living with artists, but I can't afford the rent, oh, my lord. I was ah, overweight that means I was stuffing myself because I was stuffing my dreams and I was going to have a heart attack, so I had to change the course, I had to make some changes, I changed my diet, I changed my exercise program, I just changed. And I decided to reach for my dream again and I read 'A Measure of a Man' by Sydney Poitier at that point and it gave me so much inspiration. Last year I was reading all kinds of biographies, Ray Charles, Miles Davis, um, Celine Dion anybody whose hands, you know, book I could get my hands on and I read Sydney Poitier and when he talked about sleeping on park benches and some of the sacrifices that he made. I thought this- I haven't been through anything.
[06:21] SB: Yeah, yeah.
LK: You know and do I want to do this or not? You know, and yes, he is a man, you know, but still it gave me so mush encouragement. So I wrote a letter to his publishers, 'thank you so much for writing this book, what it had to say about your relationships, what you had to say about your aspirations, as an actor what you went through, what it says about your acting. I didn't put any return address, or phone number, just an email address, cause I didn't expect anything cause I was saying thank you. And then one day I look at my email and there is a letter- an email from Sydney Poitier's administrator, 'we can't we have tried to find your number we can't locate you anywhere, please call us.' Oh my god. See that's another yes from the universe. So I spoke with him for fifteen minutes you know and at the end of the day, that gave me the encouragement that if I am to be out there on the big stage then I need to believe that if I'm aiming into a certain direction and a sign post pops up, pointing like that. OK, imagine like I'm walking along this road and a cardboard image of Sydney pops up.
[07:33] SB: (laughs) Okay
LK: Or like a virtual image of Sydney pops up and says this way, you know, that's the way. And then I did a performance with two dancers at Northeastern and the head of the Shakespeare Department was there, she said 'I loved your performance'-it was poetry and dance-'and I read the biographical details about your screenwriting, why don't you come to this location tomorrow? There is an actor who was in Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou? Who is going to be presenting, Tim is going to be presenting and I think you should come and meet him.' So I walked in there with my screenplay bold as anything and I said 'I have a screenplay that I'd like you to see' he said 'great' he loved my attitude. He said 'but I can't take it in hand for legal reasons but I'm going to give you my agent's telephone number. I want you to call there, get the details and send it. You know where his agent works, United Talent Agency, they represent the top screen writers in the industry. So that was another signpost on the way to coming here.
SB: well what happened with it?
[08:48] LK: Well it wasn't of their standard, that they needed. And as I indicated I wasn't- I had fallen behind, I wasn't in the top ten I was in the top thirty. And I had to make a decision, am I going to go forward and advance or am I going to slip because I'm not making my valiant effort.
[09:06] SB: So all these things were like key things that...
LK: motivated me to just cut loose and just write here and I've never been a permanent resident as an artist in residence, anywhere, I mean, I've been an artist in residence at a church which was phenomenal. That was at Second Congregational Church. My job was to bring art to the Sunday worship and the overall community program.
[09:28] SB: Was that in Boston?
[09:29] LK: That was in Boston, Jamaica Plain, and my job was to bring in visual artists, dancers, musicians, etc. and those were like, that was formative for me. Because it was one again, I not only did the job I was phenomenal at doing the job, so anytime that I had any job that allowed me to do the artistic piece I would excel. I went form there to working at this agency that had fallen behind in visibility because they had public relations problems in their budget and everything, I said 'if you hire me I have to use the arts' I got their social workers out here doing poetry, um, I'm liaising with um, you know, the community, in an artistic way. Which took the edge off the negative publicity that they had out here. So every time that I sue the arts in my work I was like 'yeah' and everybody said 'yeah' this is great that you're doing this. So all those were like signs you know every time that I followed art I was on the right track. Every time I followed writing I would get everything I would get friends, I would get places to live. That's, you know, everybody has a motherlode and if you're tapped into that part of your life you're going to hit that synchronicity over and over again; doors just open, the doors open, you know, but when you're not, you get slam, slam, slam and you think 'god, what's wrong with me?' you know, if you're a woman.
[11:04] SB: Do you feel like, like those pictures of the women the photographer and the actress…do you like collaborating with women?
[11:10] LK: I love collaborating with men and I've had several male collaborators actually. In fact there is a very different energy when you collaborate with men.
SB: Oh sure
LK: Yeah, but I like collaborating with women. It's more of a power struggle when you collaborate with woman.
[11:25] SB: I think that's true. There's more differing.
[11:27] LK: I don't like that. I don't like it. I don't like that. I mean when I've collaborated with a saxophonist, a musician, and he had a studio and we made tapes together and everything. I've collaborated with male sculptors. And I've collaborated with ah, Scott Lapa, who's a photographer for Broad Street, and we collaborated at Condon Street Church and created an exhibition, you know, of dance, and of photographs, they're incredible, and I didn't have any problem. It is very strict. It's like when people don't get very much of the stage and I think that that's true for us women, is this, that I can't stand that. I don't like it.
[12:14] SB: A lot of like maneuvering and
LK: Yeah, yeah it is. It takes too much. The way, you know, your ideas are stripped and you're like oo, I can't do this, you know. On the other hand, you also develop. So the things that work really well for me collaborating with women are dance and I would say that form the point of view of having a teacher, like, any really good teacher, I'm with it. I know I can relearn from this, a good teacher for me is one who automatically has an expectation that you can do this. They mirror that, they model it and you're with it you're off to the races, I love that. And that's how I like to collaborate, I when I collaborate we are off to the races then I know that we can get this done cause the energy has to be available to the creative that needs to be working but if it's like eeeeeeeee, I'm oh no no no no.
[13:32] SB: I understand, I understand.
LK: I think that there needs to be freedom in collaborating. It's gotta be exciting and you want somebody who can see even more of what you are trying to get than you can and bring something extra to it but you know you don't want to have to struggle over creativity. Because that basically means that you didn't have enough to share at that time.
[13:56] SB: Do you think that there are some people at AS220 that you would be interesting in collaborating with? Or, have you met people, do you feel like there are more inspiring…
[14:01]LK: I have collaborated with people. I have the exhibition in my room with the photographs of my family. Right oh they are beautifully framed. And I collaborated, took us about five hours to do that, to put that exhibition up. And I was surprised with Christina
[14:21] SB: Did she take the photographs?
LK: I took the photographs.
SB: Oh, you did.
LK: Yeah and other family member s took them. And that's the other thing I'm good at photography. But right now I don't own a camera but whenever I pick up a camera and I'm inspired I take wonderful photographs. But anyway so what happened is that ah…Yeah, Christina, I admire the way she works and ah, as a visual artist, she's a painter and a designer and when she and I work it's like (snaps) than you know, it's like music ok, so we are off to the races, ah, I could collaborate with her anytime, anywhere.
[15:04] SB: She lives on your floor?
[15:05] LK: She has moved to a farm, but um, she lived up there for four years and we didn't get close like that until the end but now when we see each other it's like this because we know what we've go you know, I think that's because she really does her painting and she's doing it and she knows it and she is there with it and I think that that's why when she does something collaborative, it's just all exciting for her. You have to have one person in a collaborating who can see a little bit beyond where you're going fast. You know because then you feel like you're stretching and she's like that visually so I love collaborating with her, right now is there anybody else?
[15:50[ SB: Do you see a lot of talent at AS220?
[15:51] LK: I see a lot of talent as far as, but you have to remember where people are in there career they're emerging and so there isn't always the energy for collaborating. Christina was an established visual artist, there was another visual artist that was there, um, he has moved out since, genius of an artist, twenty maybe, brilliant, absolutely total genius and I always hold him in my heart as somebody, in some way I would like to do something with. He doesn't know that, cause he's incredible. It's just something, there's no bullshitting what he's doing, that's what he loves doing, he's in it, he's connected with it, and he doesn't really care about anything else when he's doing it I think something with him, I could do something with him, yeah. And there is an artist on the second floor called Astrid, she has her own studio, she's a visual artist.
[17:00] SB: People live on the second floor too, there's bedrooms?
LK: No, second floor is just work studio. And um, she helps me in my thinking tremendously cause she's further along in terms of having her own studio, she's got the RISD credentials, so right now, this Sunday, they are going to be bringing RISD to her to you know come to her studio and ask her about her work. And she helps me when I become stuck in my thinking, like recently I been becoming very precious about technique. And I've been like ok, I've got to read this book, and then I've got to read the next one and the next one, and she says 'bullshit!' you're procrastinating. Ok. I mean you need to have another artist who will say that to you she says you know the story, ok, you're not going to do it like anybody else, you're going to do it like you. You know thee story, right, and when she had finished talking to me like that I went upstairs and revised the treatment that you just heard so. I mean, I was like, okay.
[18:04] SB: Yeah (laughs)
[18:06] LK: Because you get so like this
[18:08] SB: Oh, yeah that's always a problem with artists, that you're constantly wondering, you know, you're constantly trying to balance between the thinking end of it and the creating end of it.
[18:15] LK: That's it! When you get too much, no I can't do it yet, no I can't do it yet and Robert Niki, I'm reading Robert Niki, this guy, Phil, at work gave me his book, his book called Story, and it's like four hundred and ninety pages of real practical advice he says to you things like 'yeah you know you gotta do your research' but there are some souls who just keep researching and never write and so, like, I know that, you know, fleshing out the story is really still kind of the stage that I'm at and I can refer to that book when I feel stuck, how can I tell this or whatever, I can read it as I – see nineteen of his students have won academy awards. And his workshop is one of the most popular workshops, he I so respected in the industry and I was mentored this summer by this guy called mark Kimble he writes with this guys called Tom Muska, they wrote Stand and Deliver together and um, and he said 'you're very talented and very close to the deal' and I was like oh my god, if he's saying that I gotta get my technique, cause he said it's only you technique that's all you got to do so I'm like saying to Astrid, 'but I gotta make sure that my technique is good.' Astrid, she's arguing with me, she says 'bullshit' so I love that. I love that about AS220, you can get that.
[19:50] SB: Yeah you need that.
[19:51] LK: Ok, and in a way that's kind of a collaboration, another woman artist who has been through that stage and who understands but you know nobody ever completely goes through the stage and you never go back to it. She's going to give me this ah, this piece of art. Something she's done, she's flipping though and I say 'ok, I like that one' it's a hand, it's a copy of a hand, she says 'oh no no that's not finished, that's not finished, I've got to go back to that, do that some more and you like 'ok, so' you got it, its bout technique in that. cause the hand's there, so then we had a laugh about it. But I think its life. Sometimes I go, the administrator Carol Drown of Perishable Theatre we go to dinner sometimes, she was in a scene of mine at he fool's ball and ah, um I go out, Lucy's read my screenplay and critiqued it, she's the head of development for AS220. An she and I have been out to see Cuban performance, music, jazz, yeah. So I yeah I really have a much stronger infrastructure of artists that I relate to, my friend, her mother, and I we recently went and had lunch together. And so I have a whole like community of people that I am associated with.
[21:31] SB: Yeah, yeah that's great.
[21:32] LK: And then I have my people at eh Providence Journal.
[21:36] SB: Right, tell me about your job at the Providence Journal.
[21:37] LK: I sell the newspaper, I'm one of those people who calls you up and says "HI, how are you doing today? We've got a great sale on the paper, all seven days, 2 dollars and fifty cents. Great sale, would you like to try it?" and it's the best job I've ever had a s a writer, because I can come in, read my books on craft, people accept me as a writer, they encourage me there. Some people just think it's odd but you know the newspaper is full of story lines. It's a constant source of inspiration of mine, so it's very dramatic thing, telemarketing.
[22:18] SB: What's the office like at the Pro Jo?
[22:20] LK: it's nice. I mean you have a booth, basic booth with a consul that's about this wide and a computer. You have head set, the calls come in. you usually don't have to make any calls so your fingers aren't busy that's why you can hold a book and read in between calls
[22:34] SB: Oh wow, I didn't know that's how it works.
[2236] LK: Yeah, in most jobs you could get fired for reading a book while your you know so and telemarketing is a very dramatic thing. You sell because you're acting, you're not doing voiceovers but you're using your voice to sell, you know, so people have very distinctive voices, and very distinctive personalities.
[23:02] SB: Is that how you had to apply for the job? Is that an important part of it?
[23:05] LK: No no, well yeah in telemarketing they do listen to your voice and one of the things is they often, I have a very distinctive voice, so they'll say 'oh, we like your voice so come in for an interview.' Yeah I mean it's kind of like that. Bu then you have to be good at other things like if someone says no to you, you have to be willing to talk them around. 'well no not just seven days but why not try Sunday it's just a dollar, half the price of what you pay in the store. And thirty dollars worth of coupons, how about that?'
[23:40] SB: You have to catch them with your voice.
[23:41] LK: Exactly, you know, or you can not catch them, you can have days when you are absolutely down in the pits and you don't sell anything. And you can look perfect, but your voice says everything. So it's a challenging job and a lot of people really work their personalities; that's how they do it, you know; they really establish a conversation with each costumer. I'm not too interested in doing that, I don't want to give that much of myself. I'm interested in being nice, being professional and being warm. I don't want to be into the personal with each costumer its not me.
[24:21] SB: How many people do they have at the Pro Jo?
[24:24] LK: Well right now I think there may be about forty people because there have been a lot of people who have left to go on and do other things. And they're not really hiring.
[24:38] SB: Do you talk to a lot of the writers over there at the Pro Jo?
[24:43] LK: I don't know, not at all. And I don't care to do that.
[24;48] SB: It's a totally different kind of writing.
[24:49] LK: It's the kind of job, you get in you get out and you get on with your life. And that's really how it works for me, if I want to talk to other writers, I'll do it outside the office. One of the writer's who writes for the journal lives on our floor, she's a photographer and a journalist, yeah.
[25:09] SB: Tell me about Bert cause I'd love to meet him and about what he does.
[25:15] LK: Well, how about when we go back I'll see if I can introduce you again to him? Cause he's a really interesting person and the main thing was he believed in me right from the beginning as a screenwriter. And I'll tell you how I know that: because I had shown him my resume and we had talked in the office and everything and we came downstairs and we were going-we met Bill S. Yellow Robe Jr. who's a playwright in residence at trinity rep. and I said to Bill 'oh, I'm a poet' and Bert said 'and a screenwriter' and he said it loudly and I was like oh, my god. So to have the executive director really believe that and really say it, that's a place to belong.
[26:03] SB: And you said that you just walked in one day because you were walking around downtown.
[26:06] LK: No because I- no I wasn't just walking around downtown. I had a plan of finding out about arts organizations and how they- so I walked over to AS220 because they had an exhibit and while I was there I saw that it was an entire organization and I read some of their literature and I said you know I really need to find out about this, to see how I can be part of this. And I was coming down the steps and as synchronicity works I said to this guy who was coming up, I said 'I really like this place who can tell me more about it?' and he said 'well that would be me.'
[26:42] SB: Oh and it was Bert.
[26:43] LK: It was Bert. He isn't always that accessible, but he's a very intuitive person, and you know, it's a yes or a no but it was really lovely to have that kind of welcome.
[27:04] SB: Oh, he sounds like such a neat guy. He's really done an amazing thing. I mean, to start this-with nothing, its really, I was so shocked when I came in, because I've been to many show but to see the upstairs and then to learn that there is a third floor and that you all live there and that beautiful kitchen.
[27:18] LK: What a gift-its truly amazing.
[27:25] SB: Do you feel like he encourages everyone who lives there in the same way, he really believes in all to them.
[27:33] LK: Yes I do, you can make an appointment anytime you're dealing with something, he will absolutely encourage you and if he doesn't-usually when you move there, he stops you and he says 'we are gonna meet and have lunch or something, anytime you want to' um so that's part of the way that the organization functions.
[27:57] SB: There's a lot of people working there right , besides Bert…
[27:59] LK: Yes you know it'd probably be better for you to get to hear from him cause I'm not really sure what everybody's doing.
[28:05] SB: Yeah, it's mysterious.
[28:09] LK: Well I mean its not so mysterious cause I mean we know which arm does-because he liaises with us as a residential manager. But I don't know what everyone else is doing yeah but there are some real personalities and some dedicated people. Like for example two of the people who live up there have been living on the third floor for five years. It really says a lot. One of them is Tim O'Keefe, who is the sound guy the recording artist and Matt is the other one, he describes himself as the third floor nerd and he's into graphics. He set us all up with internet, we all get free internet, if there is a problem with that he-computer problems-he breaks it down. And he's worked at AS220 in variety of capacities. Right now he's one of the managers of the café, so I do jazz night with him. Take the money on jazz night, cause you have to volunteer. this Tuesday I'll volunteer again and then that's it for the month, you have to but that's part of your pay, like you pay back for low rent by volunteering and when they say as - when they say on the second floor 'ok, we're turning it up; the publisher of the Providence Journal is coming, we want you all to make the upstairs immaculate, we want you all to make yourselves available, this is a PR opportunity for the organization; you do not question that, you do it. And its great because you feel like you're part of something bigger than yourself
[29:41] SB: It's very cooperative, I mean the fact that you guys all share a kitchen and I mean you must feel like its such a community to cook with people and to-
[29:46] LK: Well it doesn't always work like that I mean that's kind of the romantic view. And I wont go into details but you know, there is a great big kitchen there and if you feel like baking you can, if you need to cook something you can, some people live there more cooperatively than others. I have my own refrigerator and my own microwave but I do some cooking in the kitchen, yeah.
[30:13] SB: Can you just briefly tell me like what your, not your schedule but your work... how do you work? For long periods of time each day? Do you try to work each day?
[30:23] LK: Well what I have been doing is I have been going through a research period as I indicated so I tried to read at least on one book per day. But now I-
[30:35] SB: You must be such a fast reader.
[30:37] LK: Well I am a fast reader but if you think about it, I only work four hours a day you know, at a paid a job and that's this last couple of weeks that's only been 16 hours a week, on average its twenty hours a week so that automatically cuts out twice what other people, cause most people aren't just doing one job they are doing a job and a half to cut it. And I'm not doing that so um my schedule when I'm writing is to write for four or five hours every day. It is a lot of work but-
[31:15] SB: And you are just straight writing for that amount of time? Do you write a lot and then cut things out?
[31:21] LK: Well what I usually do, what I'm getting ready to do is to do the treatment until I'm really satisfied with it. The treatment is basically the four story outline and then I go into motivations of the characters, the biographies of the characters, why they are who they are what is it that makes them tick. Then I go back and I rewrite the treatment cause I understand a lot more about the story through the character, then I actually get down to the business of writing the screenplay and I mean me writing it is moment to moment, only going to be those moments that are most important to the story. So and then its rewriting that after its been rewritten. It's having stuff read, I had six people read over the first draft.
[32:08] SB: Were they all from AS220?
[32:09] LK: A couple of them were form AS220, a had a dancer read it form Connecticut. I had the director read it, Mark Kimble read it, so you know I really had a sense of what it was that was working about the story and I have come away with actually four essential characters right now and I am really happy about that because it means that I have done the work, refining the story. Everyone else is a supporting character. Actually its three essential characters, every one else is supporting-
[32:39] SB: You mean the stripper the brother and his friend the cartoonist
[32:48] LK: That's right, the cartoonist, the priest and the stripper. Yeah see that could be a title.
[32:51] SB: Yeah, do you have title?
[32:52] LK: Well I had called it stripping for an angel but now it I'm going to give it another, snappier title because the emphasis used to be on the murder of the brother and how it changed his sisters life, but now I only see him occurring sort of in the third act after he's died you know as a pain in her heart yeah. So I think it deserves a new title now, but it worked as a title, it's a working title you know.
[33:25] SB: Who will you submit the screenplay to when you finish?
[33:29] LK: Um one of the possibilities is submitting it to Steven Finberg, he is the director of screen and television, it s lot of contacts in LA, um, another possibility is resubmitting it for Mark Kimble to read. My idea is to have three scripts ready for the Harvey Nichols contest in May. That' contest where, that's one of the most important screenwriting contests in the united states. They give you a thirty thousand dollar stipend and they have people like martin Scorsese on the interview panel, so these are top flyers in the industry and if they like your work enough o make you a fellow than that for the whole year they, it is a career building opportunity because they deepen your skill and you are expected to write another script during that year, that's why hey give the thirty thousand dollar stipend so you don't have to do anything else. And if you are a fellow then you have agents coming to you cause they know that you are that good. And so it could be a great breakthrough.
[34:40] SB: What do you think about continuing to live at AS220? Are you just not thinking in that direction right now?
[34:42] LK: Well I'll have a sign on my door says mission accomplished, when the mission is accomplished.
[34:53] SB: So you think that you will just know, like when you were in London-
[34:54] LK: Well, no, when I sell a script or when I win the Nichols. That's when I start thinking, you know, of moving. It is the situation which I have the opportunity to develop my craft, I have the opportunity to network and be visible, I have the infrastructure, why would I move until I actually accomplish my mission.
[35:21] SB: What do you think is sort of the age range at AS220?
[35:22] LK: I am the oldest person living on the floor and they haven't had anyone older as a permanant resident, although they did have some more mature people because some of the more mature people had a good influence. On the floor.
[35:36] SB: That's a real testament to your energy, I think that and I think that this is true in our class, we are hearing about oral histories, especially with artists and just like the kind of lifestyle and maybe a little bit of the uncertainty which was something that when you are younger is easier to think that you know that someday you'll figure it out to, but you know, its just such a testament to your energy. Your inspiration, I just think that's so cool.
[35:58] LK: How do you mean? What is the expectation of a woman in her fifties? I mean I am in my early fifties that is like being, its new teenager, because those are the teenagers in the group of elders, the ones in their fifties, so its a new, it's a new phase in life only this time the teenager has all the wisdom of experience. A body that's been tested and a perception that has been honed and refined by experience, and you have tremendous energy because remember being fifty now is not like being fifty then.
[36:48] SB: Oh that's true. I didn't necessarily mean health-wise or even the way that you feel or even expectations, I just mean that to continue to be an artist for a great period of time is just an achievement.
[36:59] LK: But I'm in my infancy as an artist. I didn't start being a screenwriter until 1998. However I do think the thing this is where I will agree with you about energy, I don't think it is my energy that drives me I think it is my passion. I think there is a way that I am, a way that I experience myself as a screenwriter, that is so vital. And the way that I have this power to tell this story about love in the most paradoxical situation and with all the bumps, you know, and that is compelling I mean what could be better? So I mean if you are doing something that feels like that, the other things recede into the background the aggravations of life because you are doing something that so many people wish that they could do. They wish they could put aside these things and do what they really dream of.
[38:08] SB: Yeah that's true, and I think that my comment comes from my perspective which is that I think I grew up in town where a lot of people were maybe artists when they were younger and sort of settled into something that was more comfortable or more, you know what I mean or that and I think my parents are a little bit like this, that they feel like they left something behind and to just keep going with that and to just like be what you know you are.
[38:40] LK: But I mean in a way they have a gift too, I wasn't able to be conventional in that way because I never- that isn't the way Lynda King works. It isn't that I didn't try, but I'm not a conventional person I mean that is no better or worse than what your parents did its just that I couldn't be that way. Because this is who I am and as frustrating as it might be sometimes I've chosen in my fifties to really make it work for me.