The head has its confines. The head’s got those all right, and the heart. The heart has its reasons.

We all know our dates of birth but . . . every year there is another date that we pass over without knowing what it is but it is just as important it is the other date the death date.

I went to the top of Vesuvius and looked in.

Short stories consume you faster. They're connected to brevity. With the short story, you are up against mortality. I know how tough they are as a form, but they're also a total joy.

There are things that can't be said, because it's hard to have to know them.

Fashion is fickle, and I was published because I was fashionable. Because I was gay.

I was at the tail end of the family. The next brother along was already seven years older than me. I remember growing up by myself, playing games by myself.