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

We had the fun of being outlaws. But there's a whole generation now coming up with new gender identities. For this generation of kids who don't think that being gay is anything special, they might be more interesting than any of us.

Your past comes with you no matter where you go.

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.

Most contemporary fiction sucks. It's intellectually dishonest, often morally dishonest. It's cheap and easy. It pretends to be deep but is really quite shallow.

Writing fiction is fundamentally an irrational act.

I always hoped that I would settle down with someone. Marriage, I could really give two shits about, as an institution, but it makes things easier.