I realized that there was an intellectual content in music, a kind of thinking, that I would never be able to hear.

I am a gay writer, absolutely. And in no way does that fact limit the reach or importance of what I write.

Even though I don't sing any more, singing was my first education in the arts, and it's clear to me that my training as a musician also shaped me as a writer.

History is never invisible, finally, though some people seem to work very hard to be willfully blind.

A Heart So White is simply one of the best novels I know. I'm also thrilled by Javier Marías sentences, by how elegant they are while also being so permissive in relation to the niceties of grammar and so open to the prospect of surprise. He's a genius.

Whenever I go to New York I try to soak up as much live music as I can, including as many nights at the opera as I can manage.

There are lots of big books that have gay characters - or, more commonly, a gay character - in secondary roles, but seldom are their lives, and especially their sexual lives, on center stage.