HIV criminalization is a global trend, but surprisingly Canada has some of the worst HIV laws in the world - they have incarcerated 200 people to date who have not infected anyone, and half of them are black. This is emotional manipulation that began as an anti-immigrant measure and has devolved into an exploitation of sexual anxiety. It's a crisis of meaning.

I want to be a witness to my own time because I've had a sneaking suspicion lately that I'm gonna live a lot longer than most of the people I meet. If I'm gonna be the only one still around to say what happened, I'd better pay close attention now.

MFA programs are to the world of art what gentrification is to your neighborhood.

My readers are 90 percent gay, and it's who I write for. I am not here to entertain straight people.

The wind smelled clean, like clean magazines. It smelled like invisible ink.

What I tend to tell my students is, “When you look in the mirror and see a smart, angry girl who wants to be free, you're seeing a paradigm that Kathy [Acker] helped bring into the recognizable.”

If we love and identity people with HIV and other oppressed people, we can help transform the epidemic.