I didn't want to be a boy, ever, but I was outraged that his height and intelligence were graces for him and gaucheries for me.

The kinds of good friends I have are people who are perfectly willing to have me say I'll see them in six months, and live right next door.

To live in a harmonious balance of commitments and pleasures is what I strive for.

Every artist seems to me to have the job of bearing witness to the world we live in. To some extent I think of all of us as artists, because we have voices and we are each of us unique.

If the tenth of the population that is gay became visible tomorrow, the panic of the majority of people would inspire repressive legislation of a sort that would shock even the pessimists among us.

Morality for the novelist is expressed not so much in the choice of subject matter as in the plot of the narrative, which is perhaps why in our morally bewildered time novelists have often been timid about plot.

I was very frightened when I turned forty. I suddenly thought I ought to wake up and be speaking with the voice of God.