Sly & The Family Stone – ‘Family Affair’
I've written a lot about families. My first book is about my family. My novel is about another Asian family. And I write a lot about families in my journalism. I just think the family unit is the most interesting psychological unit there is; I find it more interesting than marriages, more interesting than individuals. I just think families have everything you could possibly ever be interested in: you've got jealousy, you've got competition, you've got love, it's just endlessly fascinating. Succession, The Sopranos? These are family stories. And I think this song just captures the complexity of what it's like to be in a family, with the unconditional love of parents towards their kids. The one thing I've learned about kids – I've not had any, but all my siblings have – is that you just never know how they're going to turn out. It's just a really basic thing, but they have nothing to do with you. This song captures how, however they turn out, you're gonna love them. And there's no hierarchy in that love.