"It's a lovefest. It's fireworks every night ... There's really some sort of chemistry between Tony [ Bennett ] and me." ... Singer k.d. lang to the New York Post, Sept. 16.
"I have to have half-and-half in my coffee. It tastes awesome. I don't want espresso with skim milk! I like my body big and soft and strong." ... k.d. lang to the New York Post, Sept. 16.
"It was the first time I ever had my heart broken. I'd always been the one to leave relationships ... and it was the one time I really believed this is forever." ... Ellen DeGeneres on her breakup with Anne Heche, to the Los Angeles Times, Sept. 16.
" [ The gay press ] don't tend to like me. I don't always tow party line, so a lot of the stuff I do isn't covered by them." ... Comic/actress/singer Lea DeLaria to the Washington Blade, Sept. 7.
"Not every entertainer is obligated to be out. It's hard to be out in show business. When gay people get mad because an actor isn't out, it infuriates me. No one has the responsibility to be out to anyone but himself or herself. I made my choice a million years ago." ... DeLaria.
"Last week [ Jerry ] Falwell appeared as a guest on [ Pat ] Robertson's daily 700 Club program. He said that in addition to the terrorists who launched the attacks, others were also responsible. He elaborated by suggesting that it was the feminists, gays, abortionists and the ACLU who had angered God to the point that God allowed this to happen to the United States of America. Robertson, in turn, apparently agreed with him. Suggestions of this kind are one of the reasons why all conservatives get tarred and feathered with this extremist, bigoted, racist, sexist, homophobic label or image that isn't true. The words of Robertson and Falwell are not the words of all conservatives...they are the words of Robertson and Falwell." ... Conservative radio chat host Rush Limbaugh on his Web site, Sept. 17.
"I am gay and wouldn't want to be heterosexual for all the money in the world." ... Elton John to the German magazine Amica, Sept. 19.
"I've got enough money, don't have to follow any rules, don't have to be in the office from nine to five and take the kids to school in the morning. It is simply a fantastic life when you don't have any parameters. It's brilliant." ... Elton John.
"To hell with prayer. Let's get revenge. Let's catch every last bastard who had anything to do with the attacks on Sept. 11, throw 'em in prison, and get busy rebuilding the World Trade Center. Once the towers are up, let's drag the bastards to the top by their balls, set their asses on fire, and toss them over the side. That would be all for the best, don't you think?" ... Syndicated gay columnist Dan Savage, Sept. 12.
"There is no demonstrable change between the aggressiveness with which the Clinton administration addressed the HIV/AIDS issue and we do." ... Scott Evertz, head of George W. Bush's Office on National AIDS Policy, to the Wisconsin gay newspaper In Step, Sept. 20.
"I have no muzzle on. If people don't see me as frequently as they did my predecessor, that means that we need to do a better job on the publicity side. But the fact is that no one is telling me what to say or where to go or what to do." ... Evertz.
"I can be driving along and see a woman walking down the street. If I like the way she walks or dresses I think 'Phwaoar! She is gorgeous.' I don't just fancy men. ... But will I sleep with a woman again? Probably not. I'm very happy with David [ Furnish ] ." ... Elton John to Britain's The Sun, Sept. 24.
"Before I met David [ Furnish ] , sexually it was fabulous but very dangerous and irresponsible. I am very lucky...I should be dead, if not through the amounts of drugs I've taken, then from the amount of unsafe sex I've had." ... Elton John.
"Her lips are moving and you want to laugh...because she's likable and you know she's made you laugh in the past...but nothing resembling humor comes out. So you stare at the TV waiting. And waiting." ... TV critic Tim Goodman on The Ellen Show, San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 25.
"The Ellen Show isn't bad enough to get you angry. It's not good enough, either, to keep you watching a second episode. It's just there. DeGeneres' return to television should have created at least some buzz, but her show doesn't have enough of a pulse to raise any interest." ... Goodman.
"I never made my sexual orientation a part of my life. It didn't matter. I think so many people make it overly important, and I think that's when they get in trouble. That wonderful Toni Morrison, who I think is brilliant, she helps me every time she talks on television. They used to call her 'nigger' and spit on her, and she felt sorry for them. She said they have no morality. When that man told me they don't allow queers on television, I felt sorry for him. I don't know how I knew that" ... Charles Nelson Reilly, of Match Game fame, to The Advocate Oct. 9 coming Out issue ( with actor Chad Allen on the cover ) . An NBC president had told a young Reilly that there could be 'no queers on television,' only to be found dead years later, murdered by a male prostitute.
"He's my life. and we courted for 20 minutes. He worked for a game show called Battlestars, and he was the producer's associate, so he would help the celebrities in their dressing room. ... We have never had a fight or raised our voices. We should not be together because we have nothing in common." ... Reilly to The Advocate. His autobiographical stage play Save It for the Stage is now off Broadway at the Irish Repertory.
"I love nothing more than walking into a club and hearing one of my tracks boom from the speakers. It's an incredible rush. And, of course, the cutting edge clubs... the ones that are so vital to breaking great new music...are the gay clubs. I'm so grateful to the support of the gay community. They keep a girl like me alive and kicking." ... Singer Mariah Carey to Phoenix's HeatStroke News, Sept. 20.
"I want to say sorry to you and all the others who have been made to suffer so horribly. We in the church have a great deal to answer for. Sometimes the Bible says these things are unnatural. But, I ask, unnatural to whom? I support and firmly stand with those who say, 'We are as we are and don't want to apologize for that.'" ... Former Anglican archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa addressing a conference on homophobia in Cape Town, Sept. 30.
"I want to challenge 750 of our listeners and supporters ( a small fraction of our overall audience ) to join me in pledging $75 per month for one year to GAYBC Radio. ... Just 750 people will be able to assure that GAYBC Radio Network will be able to not only operate, but do so with ALL of the programs and personalities that you have come to count on and enjoy listening to over the past year." ... GAYBC ( www.gaybc.com ) Radio founder John McMullen in a Sept. 26 e-mail announcing the station's entire staff had been laid off and that programming will be limited to reruns for the time being.
"Spreadable butt" ... Item on a cash-register receipt from Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd. in Edinburgh, Scotland, as reprinted in ScotsGay magazine, September issue. The customer had purchased some butter.
