It's always been hard to be gay in Washington.

"Weenie" was definitely a word we used at Yale back then. But I'm not sure you were one, Larry [Kramer]. Also, you were going by a different name.

I think I just felt a sadness at some points in my career that what is available to a straight writer is not available to a gay writer.

I don't think everybody's gay. But I think a lot more people are than the world knows about.

In Western culture, there's a dichotomy between the easy narratives of God and the Devil. I now believe in this greater overarching spiritual thing. We are the light and the dark, and have to own the darkness. It's part of us. It's not evil. It's needed. You need to own both of them to be whole. Absorb it, and live it as part of your life.

My father always wanted me to be president of the United States, and his fallback position was that I not become a ward of the county. I think my father was okay about my going into journalism, though.

I could appear in this million-word book [Larry Kramer] are working on. Nobody would even notice me.