Novel Quotes by Edmund White

9 Novel quotes by Edmund White

Edmund White’s voice on the novel is unmistakable, even in a brief set of nine quotes. These lines give a taste of his perspective, offering a quick, focused glimpse into how he thinks about the form and its power.

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A straight writer can write a gay novel and not worry about it, and a gay novelist can write about straight people.

Edmund White

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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

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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

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In a novel, I think you have a contract with the reader to make the character representative - of a moment in…

Edmund White

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'One Hundred Years of Solitude' is a masterpiece because it is an episodic novel that has a rigorous form - an unprecedented…

Edmund White

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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

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'The Sound of Things Falling' may be a page turner, but it's also a deep meditation on fate and death. Even in…

Edmund White

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Reading the several thousand pages of Christopher Isherwood's complete journals is an instructive corrective to the prissiness of reading fiction. Isherwood had…

Edmund White

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In the case of my book, I don't think it's really the coming-out gay novel that everyone really needed, even though it…

Edmund White

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More by Edmund White

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

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Just like Barack Obama, my views on gay marriage have evolved, and now I am a reluctant groom.

Edmund White

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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

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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

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'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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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“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

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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

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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

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