Armistead Maupin

“Thack seemed to sort something out for a moment. “Sometimes I watch him when he’s playing with Harry or digging in the yard. And I think: This is it, this is the guy I’ve waited for all my life. Then this other voice tells me not to get used to it, that it’ll only hurt more later. It’s funny. You’re feeling this enormous good fortune and waiting for it to be over at the same time.”“You seem happy,” Brian ventured.“I am.”“Well … that’s a lot. I envy you that.”Thack shrugged. “All we’ve got is now, I guess. But that’s all anybody gets. If we wasted that time being scared …”“Absolutely.”

“Pete thinks we all have a blacking factory: some awful moment, early on, when we surrender our childish hearts as surely as we lose our baby teeth.”

“She told me about the cop. And the movie star, and the construction worker. You're not having a life Michael, you're fucking the Village People one at a time”

“There is no fifth destination.”

“Down the Peninsula at Cypress Lawn Cemetery, a woman in a paisley turban climbed out of a battered automobile and trudged up the hillside to a new grave.She stood there for a moment, humming to herself, then removed a joint from a tortoise-shell cigarette case and laid it gently on the grave."Have fun," she smiled. "It's Colombian.”

“Hey, you look at your tits; I'll look at mine! (Michael Tolliver, Tales of the City)”

“I'm not sure I even need a lover, male or female. Sometimes I think I'd settle for five good friends.”

“Don't listen when they scoffThat you are too old and I am young,For I am old enough to know betterAnd you are young enough not to care.”

“I want to deceive him just long enough to make him want me..”

“Solitude was no reason for sloppiness”

“Her Mao tse-tung t-shirt was stretched so tightly across her chest that the Chairman was grinning broadly”

“..numbed by disappointment and betrayal, like a child who had been awakened suddenly from a summer dream about christmas morning.”

“Like I've always said, love wouldn't be blind if the braille weren't so damned much fun.”

“If I had my way...We would lock ourselves away from that madness out there...”

“Her apartment seemed fussier than ever, as if the doilies and tassels had taken to breeding in their unguarded moments.”

“Nobody's happy. What's happy? Happiness is over when the lights come on”

“Things speed up as you circle the drain.”

“I felt very close to God.... My friends say that's because I was always on my knees.”

“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.”

“Oh, Mona, we're all damned fools! Some of us just have more fun with it than others. Loosen up, dear! Don't be so afraid to cry . . . or laugh, for that matter. Laugh all you want and cry all you want and whistle at pretty men in the street and to hell with anybody who thinks you're a damned fool!”

“If you want to know who the oppressed minorities in America are, simply look at who gets their own shelf in the bookstore. A black shelf, a women's shelf, and a gay shelf.”

“What about San Francisco?""What about it?""Did you like it?"She shrugged. "It was O.K.""Just O.K.?"She laughed. "Good God!""What?""You're all alike here.""How so?" he asked."You demand adoration for the place. You're not happy until everybody swears undying love for every nook and cranny of every precious damn --""Whoa, missy.""Well, it's true. Can't you just worship it on your own? Do I have to sign an affadavit?"He chuckled. "We're that bad, are we?""You bet your ass you are.”

“Taureans are stubborn as hell. They never want to tell you what sign they are.... But underneath that tough Taurus hide beats the heart of a hopeless romantic.”

“Mona knocked at the wrong time.“Uh…yeah…wait a minute, Mona -- ”Mona shouted through the door. “Room service, gentlemen. Just pull the covers up.”Michael grinned at Jon. “My roommate. Brace yourself.”Seconds later, Mona burst through the doorway with a tray of coffee and croissants.“Hi! I’m Nancy Drew! You must be the Hardy Boys!”