I'm not such a fan of imagination. If you're alive to details, they oftentimes suggest a richer or deeper imaginative line than you would have imagined. Edmund White alivedeepdetail Change image and share on social
In 'A Boy's Own Story' and 'Jack Holmes and His Friend,' my idea was to take someone totally different from my real self and, at the same time, to assign to him my own life trajectory. Edmund White assignboyfriend Change image and share on social
New York has been the subject of thousands of books. Every immigrant group has had its saga as has every epoch and social class. Edmund White bookclassepoch Change image and share on social
Of course the success of A Boy's Own Story took me utterly off guard. Edmund White boyguardstory Change image and share on social
As a young teenager I looked desperately for things to read that might excuse me or assure me I wasn't the only one, that might confirm an identity I was unhappily piecing together. Edmund White assureconfirmdesperately Change image and share on social
Few writers in history have ever been 'politically correct' (a notion that rapidly changes in any case), and there's no reason to imagine that gay writers will ever suit their readers, especially since that readership is splintered into ghettos within ghettos. Edmund White casecorrectgay share on social
Paradoxically, since gay men rarely have gay parents, cultural transmission must come from friends or strangers (a problem since the generations so seldom mix in gay life). Edmund White culturalfriendgay Change image and share on social
Everyone seems agreed that writing about sex is perilous, partly because it threatens to swamp highly individualised characters in a generic, featureless activity (much like coffee-cup dialogue, during which everyone sounds the same), and partly because it feels... tacky. Edmund White activityagreecharacter share on social
When I was living in Paris in the '80s, I used to go out with an American model who couldn't speak French. But suddenly everyone could speak English because he was so cute. Edmund White 80samericancute Change image and share on social
Whereas fiction is a continual discovery of what one wants to say, what one feels, what one means, and is, in that sense, a performance art, biography requires different skills - research and organization. Edmund White artbiographycontinual share on social
