jeffreycombs:
“In a hundred years of movies, homosexuality has only rarely been depicted on the screen. When it did appear, it was there as something to laugh at, or something to pity, or even something to fear. These were fleeting images, but they were unforgettable, and they left a lasting legacy. Hollywood, that great maker of myths, taught straight people what to think about gay people… and gay people what to think about themselves.” (The Celluloid Closet, 1996)
"All the reading I was ever given to do in school was always heterosexual. Every movie I saw was heterosexual and I had to do the translation. I had to translate it to my life rather than seeing my life. Which is why when people say to me, ‘Your work is not really gay work, it’s universal.’ And I say, ‘Up yours.’ You know? It’s gay and that you can take it and to translate it for your own life is very nice but, at last, I don’t have to do the translating, you do."