One of the side benefits of staying in the closet is you can have a much bigger career. — Edmund White Copy Share Image
I was never an assimilationist. I always thought gays had some special mission. — Edmund White Copy Share Image
Paradoxically, since gay men rarely have gay parents, cultural transmission must come from friends or strangers (a problem since the generations so… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
I've always been impelled to say the truth. When I was 14, in 1954, I already wrote a gay novel, though I'd… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
Early on, after gay liberation, there was an almost Stalinist pressure from gay critics and even gay readers to write about positive… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
I do probably come down a little hard on a group of people I call the 'blue chip gays.' I mean people… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
Perhaps I became so vague, so exhilarated with vagueness, precisely in order to forestall a recognition of the final term of the… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
The Stonewall riots were a key moment for gay people. Throughout modern history, gays had thought of themselves as something like a… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
The one thing that is sort of sneered at and not really believed is bisexuality. Any bisexual man is just seen as… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
The scorn directed against drags is especially virulent; they have become the outcasts of gay life, thequeers of homosexuality. In fact, they… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
The scorn directed against drags is especially virulent; they have become the outcasts of gay life, the "queers" of homosexuality.In fact, they… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
I lived through the Fifties in the Midwest when everything that was happening - the repression of homosexuality, for instance, the demonization… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
The talk shows in the States want celebrities, not authors. In France, it is different; writers are called upon to comment on everything. They… — Edmund White Copy Share
Just like Barack Obama, my views on gay marriage have evolved, and now I am a reluctant groom. — Edmund White Copy Share
In 'A Boy's Own Story' and 'Jack Holmes and His Friend,' my idea was to take someone totally different from my real self and,… — Edmund White Copy Share
Everyone seems agreed that writing about sex is perilous, partly because it threatens to swamp highly individualised characters in a generic, featureless activity (much… — Edmund White Copy Share
'The Sound of Things Falling' may be a page turner, but it's also a deep meditation on fate and death. Even in translation, the… — Edmund White Copy Share
If you're a beach person or a golfer, Key West is not for you. Most of the sand has been imported, and the water… — Edmund White Copy Share
First, I was opposed to gay marriage because it seemed like one more way that gays were wanting to assimilate. When I realized the… — Edmund White Copy Share
From my mother I learned just how violent and unquenchable a woman's loneliness can be. She had been sheltered excessively by her husband and… — Edmund White Copy Share
From an early age, I had the idea that writing was truth-telling. It's on the record. Everybody can see it. Maybe it goes back… — Edmund White Copy Share
Since, in the best Southern tradition, I was named Edmund Valentine White III, sometimes when people look up my books on Amazon they find… — Edmund White Copy Share
When I was young, I despised old people. I was provincial and narrow-minded. It's the reason I stayed stupid so long. If you only… — Edmund White Copy Share
Key West is the place where your sickly house plant back in New York grows to 10 ft. It's also the place where an… — Edmund White Copy Share
“In the past, when gays were very flamboyant as drag queens or as leather queens or whatever, that just amused people. And most of… — Edmund White Copy Share
When a woman falls in love with me, I feel guilty. I am convinced that it's pure obstinacy that keeps me from reciprocating her… — Edmund White Copy Share
While writing 'City Boy,' I relied mainly on my own memories. In particular, I was able to describe the effect of gay liberation on… — Edmund White Copy Share
