Quotes from Armistead Maupin

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

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

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

I've always believed you can get closer to the truth by pretending not to speak it.

All I know is this: If you and papa are responsible for the way I am, then I thank you with all my heart, for it is the light and the joy of my life.

I tend to prefer the shelter of fiction.

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.

I think that instinct, that storytelling instinct, rescued me most of my life.

I've always drawn on bits and pieces of my own life

The world changes in direct proportion to the number of people willing to be honest about their lives.

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.

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

I haven't lost faith in human nature and I haven't decided to be less compassionate to strangers.

Being in love is the only transcendent experience.

But I'm acutely aware that the possibility of fraud is even more prevalent in today's world because of the Internet and cell phones and the opportunity for instant communication with strangers.

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.

[M]y mother once told me that if a married couple puts a penny in a pot for every time they make love in the first year, and takes a penny out every time after that, they'll never get all the pennies out of the pot.

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.

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.

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

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!

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

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