I’m always intrigued by how writers navigate their hometowns — in writing and in real life. Few authors have as visceral a connection with the places that raised them as Walter Mosley, who’s writing almost always centers on South Central Los Angeles.  NPR’s Code Switch recently caught up with Mosley in the lead up to his new book, "Little Green: An Easy Rawlins Mystery."

"One of the reasons that I left Los Angeles is because I was oppressed by the feeling that how I lived — who I lived with, where — was going to define my entire life," Mosley says.

[snip]

"My understanding of LA has always been like this: Even if you don’t move out of your house, everybody around you will have moved within three years. And in essence, you have moved, because you’re not in the same neighborhood, because you’re not around the same people."