278 Quotes by Edmund White

"Critics always praise precision in writing, and some great writers (Joyce, Beckett, Gustave Flaubert) are masters of clarity—but one of the great (and seldom mentioned) resources of fiction is vagueness."

"You say that you don’t care about age and that you’re ready to push the wheelchair and hose down my bum, but how can you be sure?"

"Guy’s own erection was so hard it ached, as if it were an angry dog begging to be let out and pawing at the door."

"He looked out over the shirtless, muscled, tanned men and realised that right here, on this disco floor, there was such a concentration of fashion, slimming, money, bleaching, plastic surgery, psychotherapy – and all for naught. In a few years they’d all be old walruses, and in a few more, dead."

"I was lucky to live in New York when it was dangerous and edgy and cheap enough to play host to young, penniless artists. That was the era of "coffee shops" as they were defined in New York—cheap restaurants open round the clock where you could eat for less than it would cost to cook at home. That was the era of ripped jeans and dirty T-shirts, when the kind of people who are impressed by material signs of success were not the people you wanted to know."

"The French word for “plot,” trame, also means “heft” or “weave."

"Older guys have too much emotional baggage. They’ve already lived their lives."

"A genius must never be seen struggling to master his craft. He starts out already accomplished."

"Many people like books because they’re suspenseful or scary or touching or inspirational or because one admires the characters as if they were real people. Maybe it’s only writers who like the writing."

"Other writers, especially the ones you admire, can steer you to good books."