Edmund White

Nothing lasts in New York. The life that is lived there, however, is as intense as it gets.

Paris can be like the land of the Lotus-Eaters. You can't leave.

I always feel I'm better known in England than I am here in the U.S. Americans don't read that much, and the French are very good at knowing the names of everybody.

My first career ambitions involved turning into a boy; I intended to be either a railway guard or a knight errant.

I laugh at absurdity hardest, then stories, then observations, then bearded men on roller skates.

Women ought to be fully guarded by law in all rights of property, labor, profession, etc.; but, roughly stated, the voting population ought to represent the fighting population.