1
Had he already inspired a passion in some stranger’s heart?Edmund White
2
They all said the way to a man’s heart was through his asshole.Edmund White
3
Guy believed everything in sex should be done slowly so as not to scare the wildlife and to ensure his own natural grace and poise.Edmund White
4
He was taking Kevin’s cherry! The words made him harder and made him feel privileged, masterful, married. He thought how many men would pay unlimited amounts to have this inaugurating experience with this boy. He didn’t want to feel like a middle-aged paedophile, he didn’t even want to think all this would make a good porn film. He wanted every thrust, every second, to be laden with tenderness, a salute from him to Kevin, a deep recognition. He wanted Kevin to like what was being done to him, to push back for another joyous millimetre of penetration. He didn’t want him to label it Guy’s First Fuck or Kevin’s First Time. He didn’t want the idea and the label to crowd out the sensation or to sharpen it; he wanted it to be pure sex, undramatised. .Edmund White
5
He thought to himself, I’ll never be this perfect again, an idea that made him sad.Edmund White
6
You are the Perfect Young Man: honest, clean, virile.Edmund White
7
Wasn’t it correct in America to call a man ‘handsome’ rather than ‘beautiful’?Edmund White
8
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?Edmund White
9
Guy’s whole body was humming. Normally he thought only of his head — his eyes, his smile — and was aware of his body as merely the principle of forward propulsion trundling him along. But now he was all these bright pools of sensuality — his nipples, his half-hard cock, his tingling anus, even his feet. He was glowing all over and he felt the animal in him was longing to shed its clothes. .Edmund White
10
He was a good boy and ‘projected’ goodness — which later would be the downfall of many a person.Edmund White
11
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.Edmund White
12
In America everyone called the merest acquaintance a ‘friend’ — Guy had taken up the habit. It made him feel better about not having any real friends.Edmund White
13
He’d had a few sordid gay experiences. He’d wrestled with an obese neighbour boy in Clermont-Ferrand when he was fourteen and last year had been approached in the Clermont-Ferrand train station loo by an obscene old man who’d removed his dentures, wagged his tongue, and pointed to his open, pulsing mouth.Edmund White
14
Older guys have too much emotional baggage. They’ve already lived their lives.Edmund White