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
writing faithful way
Ive always seen writing as a way of telling the truth. For me, writing is about truth. I have always tried to be faithful to my own experience.
writing two say-anything
Tennessee Williams recognized that great theater begins with great talkers, and that great talkers obey two rules: they never sound like anyone else and they never say anything directly.
writing forgotten draws
In writing one draws in the rest, the forgotten parts.
writing games challenges
I didn't want to write a biographie romancee especially since I already write novels, nor did I want to challenge the rules of the biography game, arbitrary as those rules might be
writing america desire
If I take a less defensive tone, I'd admit that I couldn't write today a very jazzy, contemporary look at America as I did in 1979 in States of Desire.
cunning enigmatic evidence god isaac produce refuses singer
In his enigmatic and cunning story 'The Crown of Feathers,' Isaac Bashevis Singer refuses to produce uncontradictory evidence of God's will but rather mixes all signals, jams the evidence, stalls every conclusion.
life lived
Nothing lasts in New York. The life that is lived there, however, is as intense as it gets.
driver enmity hostility immediate
The natural enmity between leaver and left is like the absolute, immediate and always shifting hostility between driver and pedestrian.
deeper fan oftentimes richer suggest
I'm not such a fan of imagination. If you're alive to details, they oftentimes suggest a richer or deeper imaginative line than you would have imagined.
black care encouraged home ill later liked married opened
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.
contract main matter reader truth
In a memoir, your main contract with the reader is to tell the truth, no matter how bizarre.
almost critics early negative positive pressure readers role seen supposed
Early on, after gay liberation, there was an almost Stalinist pressure from gay critics and even gay readers to write about positive role models. We were never supposed to write negative things about gays, or else we were seen as collaborating with the enemy.
candidates ceos christ conversation europeans jesus ladies people personal
Europeans forget that one-third of the American people have had a personal conversation with Jesus Christ and that the born-again are not just little old ladies in black but also CEOs and provosts of universities and candidates for office.
africa christian fight gay gays good marriage opposed realized seemed tyrannical wanting
First, I was opposed to gay marriage because it seemed like one more way that gays were wanting to assimilate. When I realized the Christian right was so opposed to it, as well as tyrannical governments in Africa and Russia, I thought, 'It must be a good thing to fight for.'