Usually when I put my focus on the pacing, the plot, the specific characterizations, - it's ironic - but then I actually increase my chances of writing something that moves people because I haven't become too self-conscious of the goal. Christopher Rice More Quotes by Christopher Rice More Quotes From Christopher Rice I think there are profound differences between the civil rights struggle for African Americans and the civil rights struggle for gay Americans. Christopher Rice gay struggle thinking Make a beautiful mess and clean it up later. Christopher Rice beautiful-mess clean beautiful Look at any city through the right memories and it could become a graveyard as haunted as a former battlefield. Christopher Rice cities memories looks I think for gay people to see gay people living honestly about everything they do is really a contribution. Christopher Rice gay people thinking What's become more important to me over time is to not try to sell myself as someone that I'm not, and that begins with coming out of the closet and gradually it's a challenge to expand that into other areas of my life. Christopher Rice important challenges trying I think the gay community, as a whole, is slighted by high-profile figures who remain in the closet. But I think that a lot of times we need to ask ourselves what that person's role in our community would be if they were out of the closet. Christopher Rice gay community thinking I think that the most important reason to come out is your own sanity; that's above everything else. I think that applies whether you're a public figure or not. The closet is a terrible place to be for the person who's in it. Christopher Rice sanity important thinking I think we need to always mimic reality in our fiction. I think that we can stir things up and reveal a truth beneath the surface in that way as well. Christopher Rice reality needs thinking My experience of coming out was very much centered around the bar scene. And what happened for me is that when I turned 18 and was old enough to get into certain gay bars in the French Quarter, I became a regular customer. Christopher Rice french-quarter bars gay I do believe in the Kinsey scale, I think many of us fall in different places on the scale and I think it's for each one of us to decide where we are on the scale, it's not for someone else to decide for us. Christopher Rice believe fall thinking I think dragging someone out of the closet who isn't necessarily engaged in anti-gay activities can have a destructive effect on them and on us. I don't want unwilling gay people advocating on my behalf; I think that's a challenge. Christopher Rice gay people thinking