Biography can be the most middle-class of all forms, the judgment of little people avenging themselves on the great. — Edmund White Copy Share Image
The imagination is not the consolation people pretend. It can even be regarded as the admission of some sort of failure. — Edmund White Copy Share Image
A straight writer can write a gay novel and not worry about it, and a gay novelist can write about straight people. — Edmund White Copy Share Image
I've accompanied several dying people on their travels, and the desert seems to be a favored destination. It is very hot and… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
Since, in the best Southern tradition, I was named Edmund Valentine White III, sometimes when people look up my books on Amazon… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
When I was young, I despised old people. I was provincial and narrow-minded. It's the reason I stayed stupid so long. If… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
Originally, I was against gay marriage because I was opposed to all marriage, being an old-fashioned gay bohemian. The straight people I… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
I'm an atheist, I always thought, 'This is it.' If there is going to be a heaven, it should be on earth.… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
Europeans forget that one-third of the American people have had a personal conversation with Jesus Christ and that the born-again are not… — 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
I can remember in the late 1980s and early 1990s how many men with AIDS I saw everywhere in Key West. There… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
There ought to be more grants that go to people in their late twenties and early thirties. That's a crucial age, although… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
There is a whole industry in America of people who want to write, and those who teach it. Even if the students… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
In Paris, AIDS was dismissed as an American phobia until French people started dying; then everyone said, 'Well, you have to die… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
For most Northerners, Texas is the home of real men. The cowboys, the rednecks, the outspoken self-made right-wing millionaires strike us as… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
Recognizing that the world is governed by a minority, the sexually active, and that they hold sway of a huge majority of… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
I suppose people hadn't really thought each decade should have its own character and be different from the others till the 1920s,… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
Nobody in France would ever say 'He's a Jewish novelist' or 'She's a black novelist,' even though people do write about those… — 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
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
My father was a misanthrope who slept all day and stayed up all night so that he wouldn't have to see people.… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
There is an enormous pressure placed on gay novelists because they are the only spokespeople. The novelist's first obligation is to be… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
There are a lot of historical novelists who do the research about the clothes and maybe even the eating utensils, but they're… — 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
