Author

In a memoir, your main contract with the reader is to tell the truth, no matter how bizarre.

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

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.

From Edmund White

I think I'm very stoic. Death and dying are things that I'm used to.

From Edmund White

My mother was terribly invasive, all in the name of psychiatric honesty. It was a bad thing in some ways, but I do think it had the effect of making me interested in 'the truth' as a writer - more than beauty, more than having a shapely story.

From Edmund White

I longed for literary celebrity even as I saw with my own eyes how little happiness it brought.

From Edmund White

Paris can be like the land of the Lotus-Eaters. You can't leave.

From Edmund White

When I was living in Paris in the '80s, I used to go out with an American model who couldn't speak French. But suddenly everyone could speak English because he was so cute.

From Edmund White

When I was a child, I loved 'The Marble Faun' by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The reason I liked it was because it had a beautiful binding. When you're a kid, you like books because they're pretty to look at, and this one had a white calfskin cover and gold edges. That was enough to make me love it.

From Edmund White

I used to think that I could be successful if I pretended to be a 23-year-old black woman. I wanted to find a young black woman who would be willing to go in on this with me. I would write her novels, and then she would do the touring. I always thought I was too old and the wrong color.

From Edmund White

Edmund White

Notable Quotes

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