Edmund White
Edmund White
Edmund Valentine White IIIis an American novelist, memoirist, and an essayist on literary and social topics. Much of his writing is on the theme of same-sex love. Probably his best-known books are The Joy of Gay Sexand his trio of autobiographic novels, A Boy's Own Story, The Beautiful Room Is Emptyand The Farewell Symphony...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth13 January 1940
CountryUnited States of America
bohemia burning business choose comfort desire entirely hard justify soft toward turned york
If I had been straight, I would have been an entirely different person. I would never have turned toward writing with a burning desire to confess, to understand, to justify myself in the eyes of others... I wouldn't have been impelled to live in New York and choose the hard poverty of bohemia over the soft comfort of the business world.
age although closest crucial early giving grants hard judge late life looking needed novelist ought people period supporting twenties worth
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.
call chip famous hard harold mean partly people staying susan
I do probably come down a little hard on a group of people I call the 'blue chip gays.' I mean people who have managed to become very, very famous and are still very famous partly through staying in the closet, like Jasper Johns, Cy Twombly, Susan Sontag, Harold Brodkey and others.
When I was in college, I was always saying I was a socialist.
fix lover trying
When my lover Hubert Sorin was dying of AIDS, he was always trying to fix me up - posthumously, as it were - with the cute busboy at the hotel.
believe convinced explain falls keeps love obstinacy pure scarcely silly
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 passion. As I explain to her that I'm gay, it sounds, even to me, like a silly excuse; I scarcely believe it myself.
accept america case convincing equality fair families leaders mainstream marriage spirit straight
Why did mainstream America come to accept marriage equality? Gay leaders had made a convincing case that gay families were like straight families and should have the same rights. The American spirit of fair play had been invoked.
novel novelist straight
A straight writer can write a gay novel and not worry about it, and a gay novelist can write about straight people.
esteem good work written
Fiction is the thing I esteem most in my own work; I feel that, even if it's no good, only I could have written those books.
basically clothes drag historical maybe modern novelists people putting sort taking
There are a lot of historical novelists who do the research about the clothes and maybe even the eating utensils, but they're basically taking modern people and putting them in old drag - it's sort of the 'Gone With the Wind' approach.
behalf campaign marriage married
I don't have to get married myself in order to campaign on behalf of gay marriage.
novels published six until written
I didn't get anything published until I was thirty-three, and yet I'd written five novels and six or seven plays. The plays, I should point out, were dreadful.
tend worse writers
Most writers tend to get worse rather than better. I'm determined to be one that gets better.
benefits bigger closet side staying
One of the side benefits of staying in the closet is you can have a much bigger career.