I'm a novelist. I think fiction is important or I wouldn't be doing it, but most of it's bad.

Your past comes with you no matter where you go.

Most people who are HIV positive are on drugs and that gets their viral load so low that it's harder to transmit it. Most new infections come from people who don't know they're infected.

I'm a novelist. I think fiction is important or I wouldn't be doing it, but most of it's bad.

Because gay people were so much more visible, violence against gays was more common and reported on. But they were definitely related to each other. In the wake of AIDS, gay people felt like they had to organize, become much more active and visible. AIDS fostered a gay rights movement that made gay people more powerful and more vulnerable at the same time.

Don't come to New York until you've finished a book. It's too expensive. You'll never write anything. You'll spend all your time working to pay the rent.

Writing fiction is fundamentally an irrational act.