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Not every gay person recites poetry or has read Keats. You can get readers through anything if the characters are complicated. You can't dismiss Josey Wales' quite liberal worldview.

Lots of my writing can be accurately called lesbian, but I myself am queer and date people of all genders.

Of course it is very limiting to be labeled a lesbian or queer writer. We live in a homophobic culture, and even people who aren't hateful per se assume they won't get anything from a queer book.

You can't just look at someone and guess their sexuality. There's no point in assuming that every gay man has just one personality type.

Sexuality is who you are personally attracted to... But gender identity is who you are in your soul.

When I started, there was more of a cultural assumption that many readers would find gay characters irrelevant or repugnant.

It is difficult to get men to pick up a female author. Women will read men, but men won't read women.

I have always advised men to read.

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