Kyle Thomas Hemingway: The ephemera edit

“‘Every member of the audience,’ marvelled one visitor, ‘had a listening-tube, hung on the back of the seat in front, with a pair of little knobs that you placed in your ears; at the other end of the listening-tube a phonograph played a text synchronized with the pictures.’”

“In only a decade, homosexuals had graduated from criminals—merely incarcerated after homosexual activity—to mentally ill criminals subject to psychiatric remedies, which included shock therapy, castration, and lobotomies.”

“Elegance can most certainly be acquired. You don’t have to be rich and famous to have an unforgettable presence.”

“I have many letters from Proust that I’ve never bothered to open…Anybody want them?”

“Paris is narcotic for a man alone, a never-ending labyrinth where the anxiety of freedom is relieved.”

“Nothing spoils a good party like a genius.”

“A few months into the run, the woman who gave me my massage on Fridays before the show said, ‘It’s the weirdest thing. You seem to be developing wing muscles.’ Because there were these ridges of muscle I’d developed alongside my spine where I flexed the wings, opening and closing them.”

“I have no idea what’s awaiting me, or what will happen when this all ends. For the moment I know this: there are sick people and they need curing.”

“The queens took the lead in the Stonewall Riots. They walked around in semi-drag with teased hair and false eyelashes on and they didn’t give a shit what anybody thought about them. What did they have to lose? Absolutely fucking nothing.”

“Cole discovered that candy vendors sold more than sweets. They were also the purveyors of those spicy, naughty books that have always been the forbidden fruit of young people. Cole soon made a point of stocking up on these books.”