Vlasta Parkanová

"My mother and I were already living alone there on Hlavní třída (High Street), today there is the Hotel Palcát, it's probably a place that many people remember. That's where the old flat buildings were being built, so that's where we lived. So I could see it right from the window or under the window. So we'd gather up there and wait for them to come. And then, because I was in such a group of these rebels, but guys, I almost couldn't keep up with them when we then were running after the tanks, and we were either throwing something at them or we were holding the Czechoslovak flag by the four corners. So it was a killer pace, I remember, I was hardly able to run that fast."

"I probably felt from a pretty early age that I didn't know where I belonged. Even in that extended family, among the relatives, that I always felt alone or just different. Music helped me to anchor myself, and also the District Library in Tábor, where I was all the time. I could read very early. I know they always said to me, 'Don't sit at home, you're always lying there in books.' And that was a world that was wonderful for me and shaped me and helped me tremendously." - "As you talked about that feeling of otherness or loneliness, why was that? Because there weren't enough kids around you?" - "Not really. But I don't know how to say it." - "You weren't sociable?" - "I think I grew into it quite a bit, but I had to get to everything on my own. There weren't really any kids or adults around me that were more stimulating to what I wanted, which was the books and the music and all that. Just that desire for knowledge and to get out of that normal everyday routine, that was something that I shared. I think my mother would have shared that if she didn't have so much on her plate, but otherwise there was nobody like that in the family."