I focused on the stories of individual people rather than making this a kind of polemic,

I didn't write the book in sequence. If I got stuck I started a new chapter. I didn't know where it was going, but eventually I figured it out,

When I realized when (Stardust) was born, that sort of ignited an interest I had in the late '60s, ... I've had it all my life, having just missed that period.

I really feel like the dark side of the '60s began in that period, ... I wanted to explore that and show how that might have affected individuals, or how individuals had their lives changed by that shift. ... I do feel that a lot of the promise of the '60s was not only unfulfilled, but broken.

I was 12 in 1968. From a serious kid's vantage point this was a terrifying time to grow up,

That was the start of an incredible year,