Armistead Maupin

Novelist

1944-05-13

American novelist and memoirist best known for the Tales of the City series. His writing helped define late-20th-century urban fiction with recurring themes of identity, community, and social change. He has also worked as a journalist and screenwriter.

Quotes by Armistead Maupin

I couldn't write— or wouldn't write, at any rate— unable to face the grueling self-scrutiny that fiction demands
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It took so long to find you...and now I don't want it to change. I want it all set in amber. I want us and nobody else in the most selfish way you can imagine. I can't help it--I'm old-fashioned. I believe marriage is between a man and a man.
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How could I possibly NOT be disappointed by what I would find? Nothing had ever met my expectation, since nothing could compete with my doctoring imagination, my pathetic compulsion to make the world quanter, funnier, kinder, and more mysterious than it actually was.
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I know I can't tell you what it's like to be gay. But I can tell you what it's not. It's not hiding behind words, Mama. Like family and decency and Christianity.
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Nobody's happy. What's happy? Happiness is over when the lights come on
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How could I possibly NOT be disappointed by what I would find? Nothing had ever met my expectation, since nothing could compete with my doctoring imagination, my pathetic compulsion to make the world quanter, funnier, kinder, and more mysterious than it actually was.
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It took so long to find you...and now I don't want it to change. I want it all set in amber. I want us and nobody else in the most selfish way you can imagine. I can't help it--I'm old-fashioned. I believe marriage is between a man and a man.
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Nobody's happy. What's happy? Happiness is over when the lights come on
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I know I can't tell you what it's like to be gay. But I can tell you what it's not. It's not hiding behind words, Mama. Like family and decency and Christianity.
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I couldn't write— or wouldn't write, at any rate— unable to face the grueling self-scrutiny that fiction demands
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But it's amazing how many people think that gay men should slink off into the shadows when it comes to having friendships with children.
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The film itself involves a New York City radio storyteller, Gabriel Noone, who strikes up a friendship with one of his fans, an abused 14-year-old teenager who is suffering from AIDS, who does not have much longer to live.
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I believe very firmly that gay people of every stripe and age should be role models for all children, and that means interacting with them.
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I know that when Terry and I were together, 10 years ago, he did not appreciate it when people would ask him what it is like being partnered with a celebrity. Precisely because it suggested that he had no value.
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It may interest you to know that my breakup with Terry and this mystery did not happen concurrently in real life. That is a writer's device, which places Gabriel under even greater pressure when the mystery begins to reveal itself.
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The world changes in direct proportion to the number of people willing to be honest about their lives.
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