Larry Kramer Quotes

Lists are anti-democratic, discriminatory, elitist, and sometimes the print is too small.

The trouble with discrimination is not discrimination per se, but rather that the people who are discriminated against think of themselves as second-class.

I don't want to be elitist.

I always think that there's a weight of prejudice from the past that gay people perhaps carry around with them. Even if it doesn't exist so much around them, they still have a feeling of being excluded, and perceived prejudice is almost as unsettling as actual prejudice.

The prejudice surrounding AIDS exacts a social death which precedes the actual physical one.

At North Hollywood High School, I was shunned by everyone. I would sit down in the cafeteria, and students would get up from the table and walk away. They thought I was from the Mafia.

Why are some people bullied? Because they are different. How? It doesn't matter.

Snobbery? But it's only a form of despair.

Hypocrisy is the essence of snobbery, but all snobbery is about the problem of belonging.

It is, of course, the first recourse of every elitist to see social barbarism in others.

You can't not have feelings about country clubs, whichever side you're on.

I try to not be or associate with elitists.

The feeling of being an underdog, not belonging, is very much me. You harbour a little feeling of resentment towards the 'upper dog'.

I think we always view people who make us feel uncomfortable and appear to intrude on our middle-class cozy space, we view them with, if not hostility, at least suspicion, discomfort, embarrassment.

I want nothing to do with privilege.

We are fighting a deadly disease. We are not fighting the people who have that disease. Homosexuality does not produce AIDS.

The few lighter persons in the community drew together; we were literally thrown upon each other, whether we liked or not. But when we began going about together and spending our time in each other’s society, a howl went up. We were organizing a "blue vein" society. We were mistresses of white men. We were Lesbians. We hated black folk and plotted against them. As a matter of fact, we had no other recourse but to cling together.

In addition to pain, disability, and disfigurement, lymphatic filariasis carries a heavy social cost. Those disfigured by the disease are often shunned. Women are often rejected by their families. Both men and women can have difficulty finding jobs.

Why do elites hate the poor? It's xenophobia. They don't know any poor people - except their off-the-books Brazilian nanny and illegal immigrant cleaning lady from Upper Revolta who don't speak English.

I was ostracized by my community.

Growing up as a gay boy in West Texas, I definitely felt like a bit of an outcast sometimes - that there was a world that I would never be a part of.

Going into a room and saying, 'I'm a black lesbian' - it's a strike against you.

Labels are actually not to make us understand things better: they are actually to ostracise and discriminate that what does not belong to the majority.

Golf is elitist, it's stuffy, it's exclusive and I hate that because I am not that and I was never welcomed in and I'm still not welcomed in.

I remember the first time that I realized that being black meant that I wasn't allowed certain things. It was in the fourth grade, and it was who I thought was my best friend not inviting me to his birthday party because I would be the only black kid there. It was the first time I ever felt restricted, and it certainly wasn't the last time.