Our Young Man Quotes

“Just think of dick as pussy on a stick.”
― Edmund White, Our Young Man

“Guy suddenly wanted to scald his face, gain fifty pounds, shear his hair. He was sick of his beauty, his “eternal” beauty. People thought he was purer, more intelligent, kinder, nobler than he was because they ascribed all these virtues to him. What if he were stripped of his looks, if he stabbed the grotesque painting in the attic? If they saw him for what he really was – empty-headed, vicieux (how did you translate that? “Riddled with vices?”), narcisse? Used to being indulged and pursued, terrified he’d outlive his fatal appeal and yet longing to be free of it?”
― Edmund White, Our Young Man

“What did they say about Helen of Troy? That her face launched a thousand ships? That’s you, you’re that beautiful. A thousand ships.”
― Edmund White, Our Young Man

“Guy thought of the Greek word agon, wasn’t it at once an athletic contest and a style of suffering, an agony?”
― Edmund White, Our Young Man

“You’re universally liked because you’re such a black hole in space. You don’t have any real traits. You’re sympa, at least as much as a narcissist can be, but that means nothing. You’re beautiful and everybody projects onto you what they’re looking for, which is easy to do since you don’t stand for anything definite. You’re a black hole in space.”
― Edmund White, Our Young Man

“Had he already inspired a passion in some stranger’s heart?”
― Edmund White, Our Young Man

“Is that how you stay so fresh and young, drinking the sperm of teenage males?”
― Edmund White, Our Young Man

“This isn’t a banana republic. You can’t pull strings in America, pay off an official, lean on your cousin. It’s not like France or Spain – those banana republics.”
― Edmund White, Our Young Man

“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, Our Young Man

“Now, that’s what you call a vicious French queen. I never discussed your penis size – ”
“Bet you did,” Kevin said, “at the beginning. I’ve heard the way gay guys talk at the gym. Nothing’s sacred. Not even my poor little penis.”
― Edmund White, Our Young Man

“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, Our Young Man

“Was a glimpse of his cock worth a Mercedes?”
― Edmund White, Our Young Man

“He thought to himself, I’ll never be this perfect again, an idea that made him sad.”
― Edmund White, Our Young Man

“They all said the way to a man’s heart was through his asshole.”
― Edmund White, Our Young Man

“Don’t let him lead you astray, my child. He’s such a wicked man, woof!”
― Edmund White, Our Young Man

“Nor did Kevin go, “Ew-w,” when he pulled his penis out and it was brown and smelly, and that, too, Guy considered a rite de passage.”
― Edmund White, Our Young Man

“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, Our Young Man

“Suddenly nothing in the world seemed to Guy more glamorous than homosexuality, as romantic as heady white gardenias nested in polished green leaves.”
― Edmund White, Our Young Man

“They’re drunk now,” Guy said, “and optimistic, but they will soon be squabbling over household expenses and hoping they’ll find love later in the Meat Rack. They’ll be arguing. ‘Why did you buy that expensive leg of lamb?’ And they become especially cross at the beginning of September when they realise the season is over and they’ve danced their tushes off and fucked a lot in the bushes, but, hey, they haven’t bagged a beau for the winter and they’ve maxed out their credit cards.”
― Edmund White, Our Young Man

“These absurd showbiz queens are as much a part of New York street life as sirens, steam from manholes, or ghostly Asian deliverymen ferrying chop-suey-to-go on unlit bikes going the wrong way.”
― Edmund White, Our Young Man

“America was the attic of French culture.”
― Edmund White, Our Young Man

“He’d lived so much of his life for sexual love, which was a filthy thing, really, all that saliva and semen and anal smears, filthy! Much better to live alone and watch TV in bed or talk to Pierre-Georges as he was in his bed and watching the same movie. Both of them spotlessly clean.”
― Edmund White, Our Young Man

“You are the Perfect Young Man: honest, clean, virile.”
― Edmund White, Our Young Man

“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, Our Young Man

“Real men don’t moisturise.”
― Edmund White, Our Young Man

“Andrés was Latin enough to understand the sacred rights of the family and the inconvenience of a same-sex lover.”
― Edmund White, Our Young Man

“They kept flipping back and forth, but it wasn’t clear which was the more exquisitely pleasurable pain, to penetrate or to be penetrated.”
― Edmund White, Our Young Man

“The Parisians looked at each other constantly but were more curious about each other’s shoes than their sexual availability.”
― Edmund White, Our Young Man

“He was amused by their ‘ass stories’ (histoires de cul) told over morning coffee at noon about their exploits the night before.”
― Edmund White, Our Young Man

“On Fire Island everyone was in a Speedo pulling a wagon of groceries across the bumpy boardwalk; you couldn’t tell the houseboys from the bankers.”
― Edmund White, Our Young Man