60 Edmund White Quotes for You to Enjoy

Edmund White

American Novelist

Born: Jan 13, 1940

Gay Life Marriage Me People You

Related authors: Elie Wiesel Ernest Hemingway H. P. Lovecraft James Baldwin John Updike Leo Rosten Nathaniel Hawthorne Richard Bach

There ought to be more grants that go to people in their late twenties and early thirties. That's a crucial age, although it's very hard to judge who is worth supporting and who is not. Looking back on my own life, I see that was the period when I was closest to giving up as a novelist and when I most needed some encouragement. Edmund White

Life Age People Judge Worth Giving Giving Up Looking Looking Back Encouragement Own Early Thirties Thirties Late Ought Back See Some My Own More Crucial Supporting Most Period Although Go Up Very Closest Hard Grants Who Twenties Novelist Early Needed

Part of my problem as a young writer was that I was too much a New Yorker, always second-guessing the 'market.' I became so discouraged that I decided to write something that would please me alone - that became my sole criterion. And that was when I wrote 'Forgetting Elena,' the first novel I got published. Edmund White

Alone Me Problem Too Much First Discouraged Young Too Market Please Sole Criterion Would Something Write Writer Part New Wrote Became Always Got Yorker Forgetting New Yorker Decided Much Novel Published

I was never an assimilationist. I always thought gays had some special mission. Edmund White

Thought Gays Some Never Had Mission Always Special

The French are pretty thin-skinned. The few times I mentioned a French writer in 'City Boy,' the relatives would ring up in high dudgeon. I once wrote a mocking review of Marguerite Duras in the 'New York Review of Books,' and good friends of mine in France got very angry. Edmund White

Good Angry Relatives Few Good Friends Books Once France Mine High Would Ring City Pretty Mentioned Writer New French Wrote Boy Got Review Up Friends Very Mocking Times York New York

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 to the sacred origins of literature - the holy book. There's nothing holy about it for me, but it should be serious, and it should be totally transparent. Edmund White

Me Age Book Writing Nothing Everybody Back See Record Totally About Sacred Had Idea Goes Maybe Literature Holy Holy Book Should Transparent Serious Origins Early Early Age

The culmination of a long struggle was 2013, which could clearly be labeled the Year of the Gay. State after state had legalized gay marriage, despite intense opposition from the religious right. Edmund White

In Paris, AIDS was dismissed as an American phobia until French people started dying; then everyone said, 'Well, you have to die some way or another.' If Americans were hysterical and pragmatic, the French were fatalistic: depressed but determined to keep the party going. Edmund White

You People Party AIDS Everyone Way Phobia Some Determined Paris Hysterical Until French Well French People Another Pragmatic Said Were American Die Going Dying Depressed Then Dismissed Keep Started

I asked my body if it was going to die or not from AIDS. And it said 'no.' I sort of paid attention to that. Edmund White

AIDS Attention Sort Said Die Going Asked Body Paid

I never liked my father. He really was a dullard and misanthrope. My mother and he were married for 22, years and it was an ill match. She encouraged me to be a writer. She opened her home to black friends, and this was the 1950s. She didn't care later when I write about her. Edmund White

Home Me Mother Care Father Black Later Married About Write Writer Never He Opened Liked She Match Were Years Encouraged Friends Really Ill Her

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

Gay People Worry About Write Writer Straight Straight People Novel Novelist

One of the side benefits of staying in the closet is you can have a much bigger career. Edmund White

You Benefits Side Staying Closet Bigger Much Career

Reading the several thousand pages of Christopher Isherwood's complete journals is an instructive corrective to the prissiness of reading fiction. Isherwood had faults that we'd say were unforgiveable in a novel (he was careful to distance himself from these in his autobiographical fiction). Edmund White

I don't have to get married myself in order to campaign on behalf of gay marriage. Edmund White

Myself Gay Marriage Gay Marriage Married Campaign Behalf Get Get Married Order

America thrives on identity politics, left and right. But France is opposed to the idea. Since the Revolution, the French have enthroned the idea of universalism. All of us must be equal before the law as abstract individuals, and that extends to the arts. Edmund White

Nobody in France would ever say 'He's a Jewish novelist' or 'She's a black novelist,' even though people do write about those subjects. It would look absurd to a French person to go into a bookstore and see a 'Gay Studies' section. Edmund White

Gay People Black France Bookstore Say Those Section Though Would See About Write Studies He Absurd Nobody Look French She Go Subjects Person Even Novelist Ever Jewish

Most writers tend to get worse rather than better. I'm determined to be one that gets better. Edmund White

Better Worse Determined Rather Tend Writers Most Than Get Gets

The Stonewall riots were a key moment for gay people. Throughout modern history, gays had thought of themselves as something like a mental illness or maybe a sin or a crime. Gay liberation allowed us to make the leap to being a 'minority group,' which made life much easier. Edmund White

Life Gay History People Key Crime Thought Made Minority Group Gays Liberation Easier Minority Group Riots Mental Something Mental Illness Throughout Had Allowed Sin Like Leap Make Were Modern Maybe Being Modern History Which Themselves Us Much Moment Illness

'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 superb quality of Vasquez's prose is evident, captured in Anne McLean's idiomatic English version. All the novel's characters are well imagined, original and rounded. Edmund White

Death Quality Fate Translation Meditation Evident Characters Superb Prose Anne Also Well Sound Falling Version May Turner Page English Deep Original Even Novel Captured Rounded Things Imagined

'The Truth About Lorin Jones' will undoubtedly shock and offend as many readers as it will amuse, since it dares to make fun of feminism - of its manners, if not its politics. Edmund White

Politics Truth Will Feminism Manners Dares About Since Make Readers Offend Undoubtedly Shock Fun Many Amuse

I can think of no other writer who so thoroughly embodies the Jamesian spirit as Alison Lurie. Like him she can excavate all the possibilities of a theme. Like his, her books seem long, unbroken threads, seamless progressions of effects. Edmund White

In a novel, I think you have a contract with the reader to make the character representative - of a moment in history, a social class... for instance, I wanted to make the boy in 'A Boy's Own Story' more like other gay men of my generation in their youth and not like me. Edmund White

Character Me Gay History You Class Youth Generation Men Own Think Other My Generation More Instance Like Make Reader Boy Contract Representative Wanted Story Social Social Class Moment Novel

In the 1970s in New York, everyone slept till noon. It was a grungy, dangerous, bankrupt city without normal services most of the time. The garbage piled up and stank during long strikes by the sanitation workers. A major blackout led to days and days of looting. The city seemed either frightening or risible to the rest of the nation. Edmund White

Time Dangerous Rest Long Nation Garbage Slept Everyone Strikes City Seemed Blackout New Major Days Most Without Piled Looting Till Noon Led Normal Up Frightening York New York Bankrupt Either Workers Sanitation Services

Nothing lasts in New York. The life that is lived there, however, is as intense as it gets. Edmund White

Life Nothing Lasts New However York Intense Gets New York Lived

While writing 'City Boy,' I relied mainly on my own memories. In particular, I was able to describe the effect of gay liberation on an individual life (mine) as events paralleled my own growing self-acceptance; in this case, the political truly was the personal. Edmund White

Life Gay Memories Writing Events Political Own Mine Liberation City Able Case My Own Individual Individual Life Self-Acceptance Mainly Particular Boy Truly Effect Personal While Describe Growing

Edmund White Quotes

No more Edmund White quotes