A writer who can’t use his firsthand experience must turn to secondhand experience, which can lead to thirdhand clichés.
Ginsberg was the favourite bohemian poet of straight college boys who wanted to transgress, and of gay college boys who were not yet ready to come out.
Gay liberation did not create gay promiscuity. There was sex before there were marches, politics, or books – it was the best reason for being homosexual, it and love.
Love is benign only when it gets what it wants. Otherwise love can be far more destructive than mindless sex.
We can't ignore right-wing demagogues who insist that the word of the doctor who proclaims a child's sex at birth somehow holds more sway over the reality of the body than the word of the person who inhabits it. - Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Her betrothed is a lout, her father is a boor; and now her brother is trailing around looking like a thunderstorm about to burst. Men are not sensible creatures.' 'Thank you,' said Robin.
...the Uncommon Stupidity charge agents me be dropped." My shock at the "Honorably Ass-kisser" comment was pushed away by the thought of a law agents uncommon stupidity and wondered how we could get one.
Laura Lee: Kansas was all golden and smelled like sunshine. Josey Wales: Yeah, well, I always heard there were three kinds of suns in Kansas, sunshine, sunflowers, and sons-of-bitches.
Jamie: [after Jamie and Josie kill Abe and Lige] I figured you could use some help. Josey Wales: You get those holes a-leakin', I'm gonna whomp you with a knotted plow line.
Fletcher: He's [Josey] Fletcher: has got the first move And I'd tell him. Josey Wales: What's that? Fletcher: That the war is over. Josey Wales: I reckon we all lost a little bit in that damn war.
Bounty hunter #1: You're wanted, Wales. Josey Wales: Reckon I'm right popular. You a bounty hunter? Bounty hunter #1: A man's got to do something for a living these days. Josey Wales: Dyin' ain't much of a living, boy.
Grandma Sarah: This Mr. Wales is a cold-blooded killer. He's from Missouri, where they're all known to be killers of innocent men, women and children. Lone Watie: Would you rather be riding with Comancheros, Granny? Grandma Sarah: No, I wouldn't.
Yet while Vidal writes best about power, politics, and history White’s strengths are sex, art and – sometimes – love. Each tends to stumble when he enters the other’s domain.
A younger writer, David Leavitt, would later say he envied White for having “such a representative life”. And it’s true: the zeitgeist blew through White more easily than it did through most people.
Seventies macho was both a look – moustache, jeans, leather jacket – and an attitude – cool, heartless, virile – that were reactions against the old-style homosexuality of too much art and too much emotion.
While railing against the manufactured prerequisites of womanhood or manhood, we need to avoid manufacturing our own prerequisites. The non-operative journey and the objection to it illustrate just one area in which we need to open our thinking to ot...
The first question we usually ask new parents is : “Is it a boy or a girl ?”. There is a great answer to that one going around : “We don’t know ; it hasn’t told us yet.” Personally, I think no question containing “either/or” deserves ...
I see fashion as a proclamation or manifestation of identity, so, as long as identities are important, fashion will continue to be important. The link between fashion and identity begins to get real interesting, however, in the case of people who don...
The thing about gay marriage is simply that it's not gay. It's marriage. If you are uncomfortable with marriage, you can not outlaw marriage. And, shocking, even if homosexuality makes someone uncomfortable, one can not outlaw identifying as or pract...
I wasn't trying to be an outlaw writer. I never heard of that term; somebody else made it up. But we were all outside the law: Kerouac, Miller, Burroughs, Ginsberg, Kesey; I didn't have a gauge as to who was the worst outlaw. I just recognized allies...
Lone Watie: [Josie has walked up on Lone and Moonlight having sex] Howdy. Josey Wales: Howdy. Lone Watie: Somethin' wrong? Josey Wales: Uh, no. Lone Watie: I guess you were right. [smiles] Lone Watie: I ain't that old after all.
