Ultimately, I felt fortunate, because in many ways I did identify with aspects of being gay that were very stereotypical. I was a big theatre kid in high school, I was creative, I was very emotionally sensitive, even hypersensitive. I loved female divas.

I think for gay people to see gay people living honestly about everything they do is really a contribution.

Usually when I put my focus on the pacing, the plot, the specific characterizations, - it's ironic - but then I actually increase my chances of writing something that moves people because I haven't become too self-conscious of the goal.

Make a beautiful mess and clean it up later.

Look at any city through the right memories and it could become a graveyard as haunted as a former battlefield.

I think we need to always mimic reality in our fiction. I think that we can stir things up and reveal a truth beneath the surface in that way as well.

It never occurred to me to write anything that didn't include gay characters in it.