I was influenced growing up by everything from Harlequin romances to Fedor Dostoyevsky and Albert Camus, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and later Lydia Davis, Mary Gaitskill, bell hooks.
Danzy SennaI don't like stories that are too neat and too resolved. I think resolutions can be deadening for the reader.
Danzy SennaI find myself speaking through the other characters, putting ideas in their voices and heads. Writing almost becomes a splitting of myself into multiple personalities. But I don't write to make an argument on behalf of any of the characters, or to prove anything about a character. I think that's important that I be serving the story first and not my own point of view.
Danzy SennaIn terms of music, each novel is different but I usually find my way into an era through the music. In this novel the New People, I listened to a lot of 90s hip-hop, which was just so genius. Also, all the musical references in the book from the Peoples Temple one and only album to Luther Vandross.
Danzy SennaI think cults never stop being interesting and I'm intrigued by how we all do a tiny bit of submitting to a larger group - and how they can sneak up on you.
Danzy SennaItโs funny. When you leave your home and wander really far, you always think, โI want to go home.โ But then you come home, and of course itโs not the same. You canโt live with it, you canโt live away from it. And it seems like from then on thereโs always this yearning for some place that doesnโt exist. I felt that. Still do. Iโm never completely at home anywhere.
Danzy Senna