I Believe Only In Art And Failure.

Now That Our Sexual Experience Is Increasingly Available To Us As A Subject For Contemplation, We Have To Extend Our Language To Express Our New Consciousness Until We Have As Many Words For Sexuality As The Eskimo Has For Snow, That Pervasive, Beautiful, And Mortal Climate In Which We All Live.

I Didn't Want To Be A Boy, Ever, But I Was Outraged That His Height And Intelligence Were Graces For Him And Gaucheries For Me.

I Remember How Surprised I Was When My First Novel Was About To Be Published And I Was Informed That I Could Be Sued For Anything Any One Of My Characters Said. 'but I Often Don't Agree With What They Say,' I Protested. The Lawyer Was Not Interested In The Clear Distinction I Make Between My Own Voice And The Voices Of My Characters. Neither, I Have Found, Are Many Of My Readers.

As A Writer, I Must Be Free To Say What Is In All The Diversity I Can Command. I Regret The Distorting Prejudices That Surround Me, Whether They Affect Homosexuals Or Men Or The Physically Handicapped And I Can't Alone Defeat Them. They Will Not Defeat Me, Either As A Lesbian Or A Writer.

Coming Out, All The Way Out, Is Offered More And More As The Political Solution To Our Oppression.