The imagination is not the consolation people pretend. It can even be regarded as the admission of some sort of failure.
Edmund WhiteAt certain crucial moments - an emergency or an opportunity - one must act first and think later.
Edmund WhiteThese rejections hurt me terribly because I felt it was my life that was being rejected.
Edmund WhiteSan Francisco is where gay fantasies come true, and the problem the city presents is whether, after all, we wanted these particular dreams to be fulfilled--or would we have preferred others? Did we know what price these dreams would exact? Did we anticipate the ways in which, vivid and continuous, they would unsuit us for the business of daily life? Or should our notion of daily life itself be transformed?
Edmund WhiteI'm an atheist, I always thought, 'This is it.' If there is going to be a heaven, it should be on earth. I feel much happier than most people. I'm fairly stoic about death, but I'm not keen on dying if it's going to be long and protracted. I don't have dark nights of the soul, except occasionally. I'm such a little busy bee.
Edmund White