I wrote the first draft of the New People quickly but it had been percolating a lot longer. … - Danzy Senna

Same topic Authors

Quote of the day

We need a better way to talk about eating animals, a way that doesn't ignore, or even just shruggingly accept things like habits, cravings, family and history, but rather incorporates them into the conversation. The more they are allowed in, the more strongly we will want to follow our best instincts.

Danzy Senna

I wrote the first draft of the New People quickly but it had been percolating a lot longer. It's a hard question to answer because I'd been working on another novel for years and when I gave up on that, this one came very easily. But I think the work had been going on a lot longer than the actual writing.

Draft, People, Thinking, Work, Writing

Same Author Quotes

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.

Exist, Home, Live, Thinking, Want

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

Dog, Fear, Like, Roving, Worry

I think about some of the novels I love - The Stranger, Disgrace, Quicksand and Passing, Giovanni's Room, The Talented Mr. Ripley. I think I'm more intrigued by characters who don't do the right thing and where we are allowed to identify with their shame
dishonesty
envy. . . whatever.

Character, Characters, Envy, Passing, Ripley, Thinking

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.

Albert, Baldwin, Bell, Growing Up, Hook, Romance

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.

Moment, People, Read, Thinking, Writing