“Desperation Road came about because of an image in my mind I couldn’t shake, that of a woman and child walking along the side of the interstate under a punishing summer sun, with the woman carrying all they owned in a garbage bag. I didn’t know where they were going or what they were doing, but I had to find out. And I immediately felt compassion for them, as well as empathy and worry, and that emotional attachment told me, you have to go with them.”