Looking back, I can see that the women I loved, at least early on, were status symbols. I suppose, in that sense,… — 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
When a woman falls in love with me, I feel guilty. I am convinced that it's pure obstinacy that keeps me from… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
I've always seen writing as a way of telling the truth. For me, writing is about truth. I have always tried to… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
When my lover Hubert Sorin was dying of AIDS, he was always trying to fix me up - posthumously, as it were… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
My mother was terribly invasive, all in the name of psychiatric honesty. It was a bad thing in some ways, but I… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
I never liked my father. He really was a dullard and misanthrope. My mother and he were married for 22, years and… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
In a novel, I think you have a contract with the reader to make the character representative - of a moment in… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
I used to think that I could be successful if I pretended to be a 23-year-old black woman. I wanted to find… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
Early gay novels such as 'Giovanni's Room' and 'The City and the Pillar' were not nearly as important to me as Isherwood's… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
Part of my problem as a young writer was that I was too much a New Yorker, always second-guessing the 'market.' I… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
When I was a child, I loved 'The Marble Faun' by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The reason I liked it was because it had… — Edmund White Copy Share Image
From an early age, I had the idea that writing was truth-telling. It's on the record. Everybody can see it. Maybe it… — 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
