AIDS was one of those diseases that a lot of people tried to claim ownership over, and especially as someone who was, fortunately never HIV positive,….

We had the fun of being outlaws. But there's a whole generation now coming up with new gender identities. For this generation of kids who don't think….

Who cares what the state thinks about your relationship? They're giving you tax breaks and this and that - it's just nonsense. You want to live with ….

Most people who are HIV positive are on drugs and that gets their viral load so low that it's harder to transmit it. Most new infections come from pe….

One night I had a dream and woke up and wrote down the dream. That was my first short story. The dream was a kind of fantasy of me getting revenge on….

Writing fiction is fundamentally an irrational act..

Your past comes with you no matter where you go..

I'm a novelist. I think fiction is important or I wouldn't be doing it, but most of it's bad..

Sometimes when we think we’re protecting ourselves, we’re really hurting ourselves. And sometimes the people around us too..

Most contemporary fiction sucks. It's intellectually dishonest, often morally dishonest. It's cheap and easy. It pretends to be deep but is really qu….

I came out after safe sex was invented and I always practiced safe sex. Except for when I lost my virginity..

Because gay people were so much more visible, violence against gays was more common and reported on. But they were definitely related to each other. ….

Don't come to New York until you've finished a book. It's too expensive. You'll never write anything. You'll spend all your time working to pay the r….

Losing my virginity was very boring..

Art is only great if it's uncodifiable. If art isn't scaring you, if it's not making you upset, then I don't think it's actually doing anything..

I always hoped that I would settle down with someone. Marriage, I could really give two shits about, as an institution, but it makes things easier..

It's nice to have something you think separates you from the mainstream and gives you perspective on that, but it can become very limiting at the sam….

Your life could be taken from you at any moment. Between AIDS and the violence against gay people that was so prevalent back then, you really didn't ….