Alexander Chee Quotes

I went to an art school in Brooklyn and painted Fine Art, if that's what you'd call it for eight years in New York, until I saw the first underground comics in the East Village Other.

David Bowie and Boy George created a safely contained theatrical expression of gay style.

I love the East Village.

In New York City, it's popular. I used to think to myself, 'Man, there's a lot of gay people out here.' And it had me comfortable: it was like, I can be myself! I used to still try to hide it, until it was really overwhelming - there were just too much girls attracted to me!

'Queer as Folk' is gay gay gay gay gay.

I've always felt very attuned to, and at home in, the gay community.

I decided to host a couple of the 'In The Life' programs. And I did that really as a result of meeting a lot of young gay people in the Midwest who really had nothing to relate to. At least I felt this program is presenting them with some options.

My first job in NYC was playing a gig in the early nineties at CBGBs.

Jenny McCarthy was the one I thought could turn me straight. I thought that if I could just get my shot with her, it could happen.

I've always had tremendous support from my parents. I think there's a myth that gay people have lousy relationships with their parents.

I always thought I was going to be a great poet, and go and live in New York, where the great poets lived - you know, where Whitman had walked the streets.

The gay scene here has become so visible partly out of need. The community here can be so oppressive it almost creates the need for a thriving gay and lesbian community.

I remember going to the East Village for the first time as a fifteen-year-old and going to Tompkins Square Park. That really seemed like a pretty edgy thing to do.

I'm always thrilled when I get feedback from young people, particularly from 'The New Normal,' young gay people - when they say they want that when they grow up, that means a lot to me.

Harlem was the main chance for the east end of New York, for eastsiders, as that real estate boom that took place in the 1890s - and it was a preposterous one where people bought and sold, and everything appreciated with each sale - and eventually, of course, the house of cards would crumble.

It's daunting, taking on the task of representing the gay community, because there are so many different facets and different schools of thought and behavior.

I just worship Madonna. As, like, a young gay kid growing up in the '80s and '90s... I was at the Blond Ambition tour with my parents vogue-ing up in the mezzanine at the Nassau Coliseum.

When I was doing 'Spring Awakening' the first couple of years I was living in New York, I was gay, and I was living with my 'roommate,' who was my boyfriend but was my roommate to everyone else.

Maybe I should find myself one of those sexy British soccer stars. David Beckham is hot. But I've got a hell of a lot of competition.

We were in New York, and we were performing at a morning show. This fan literally ran from that studio in the middle of New York City to our airport, which was very far away. That fan ran all the way there to see us, and we were so in awe of that guy.

I had mentors, growing up in gay life - older gay men who told me about our history and the history of art and culture - but somehow, the younger generation missed out on that synergy.

I spent my entire youth being in love with gay men because they were the most interesting and compassionate people I knew.

I grew up in a quiet suburb in South Texas, and loved the in-your-faceness of the East Village. In the early days, when I was still unemployed, I'd lie on a bench in Tompkins Square Park perusing the listings in the 'Village Voice' for a place to live.

Violet Chachki - I'm a huge fan of her work.

When I moved to New York, the gay community welcomed me with open arms and told me how beautiful I was. I will never turn my back on them.