Motherhood. It was hard to get lost in anything else completely when children were 3 years old.

Writing New People I was thinking a lot about the era that I came of age - the 90's. Brooklyn, in particular, this moment when I lived there. The sense of possibility. I was also trying to find a way to write about Jonestown. I had read about it a lot and I had the sense that the story could really start to drive one over the edge.

I definitely feel like when I write a book it's not my job to police or guide the readers. The book and the characters don't belong to me anymore. If that makes sense.

My fear was like a stray dog, roving the neighborhood of my life, looking for a new source of worry.

Motherhood. It was hard to get lost in anything else completely when children were 3 years old.

It’s funny. When you leave your home and wander really far, you always think, ‘I want to go home.’ But then you come home, and of course it’s not the same. You can’t live with it, you can’t live away from it. And it seems like from then on there’s always this yearning for some place that doesn’t exist. I felt that. Still do. I’m never completely at home anywhere.

I'm increasingly less interested in classic storylines and that arc that we have come to expect.