Quotessence
Home / Authors / Dan Savage
Dan Savage

Dan Savage Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllGayPeopleIfsThinkingWantGay PeopleKidsMenWayWriting

Famous Dan Savage Quotes

“The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness means that each of us is free to go our own way, even if the ways some of us may choose to go seem sinful or shocking to our fellow citizens.”

IfsWayMayMeanSeemsLibertyCitizensFellowsPursuitShockingPursuit Of HappinessRight To LifeLife Liberty And The Pursuit Of Happiness
Book:Skipping Towards Gomorrah: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Pursuit of Happiness in America
Create image

“For me, my discomfort with gay weddings was articulated by a close friend, who observed that gay people getting married is like retarded people getting together to give each other PhDs. It doesn't make them smarter, and it doesn't make us married.”

PeopleGivingTogetherGayMarriedSmarterDiscomfortGay PeopleGetting MarriedClose FriendsRetardedPhds
Book:The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant
Create image

“Valentine's Day is much more of a holy day of obligation for a guy in a relationship with a woman, because a woman has certain emotional expectations. Even if she doesn't value Valentine's Day, or views it as a corporate exercise, she still often wants her boyfriend or husband to go through the motions, just in case she values it.”

IfsWantStillsGuyCertainValuesViewsCasesEmotionalExerciseHolyHusbandExpectationsObligationCorporateValentineValentine's DayHoly Days
Author:Dan Savage
Create image

“I'm one of those gay people who's constantly reminded of how fortunate I am to live now and not to be Ennis and Jack [from Brokeback Mountain] or whatever - not that I'd mind being Ennis for half an hour. But it's been so much worse recently. It still is terrible. In Iran, they're hanging gay teenagers. I'm grateful for how far the United States, even with its crazy Christians, has come on a lot of issues. And the fact that I get called a faggot occasionally by a crack addict, while annoying, certainly isn't a lobotomy and prison.”

PeopleMindStillsStatesFactsChristianHoursUnitedHalfUnited StatesIssuesCrazyTerribleGayMountainGratefulPrisonTeenagerFortunateIranCracksAnnoyingAddictGay PeopleLobotomyBrokeback Mountain
Author:Dan Savage
Create image

“A lot of young people regard a threat against one person's sexual freedom as a threat against all of them, and that's absolutely how they should regard it. But it's heartening to look at the polls on young people on gay people, gay marriage, and sexual-freedom issues. They're terrific, and that's why the religious right is so desperately trying to lock in their current bare majority for prejudice: because their constituents are dying. They're losing votes every time the ambulance pulls up to the old folks' home. Let's hope it pulls up a little more frequently.”

PeopleShouldTryingLooksLittlesPersonsHomeYoungReligiousIssuesDyingGayLosingVotePrejudiceRegardMajorityThreatFolksCurrentsLocksPollsTerrificGay MarriageGay PeopleConstituentsAmbulancePull UpsFolks Home
Author:Dan Savage
Create image

“There's a big mistake the left has made with talking to religious people, which is attempting to talk them out of their interpretations of the Bible, attempting to have theological debate with them. When I'm on right-wing whackjob radio, when people call up to inform me that I'm going to hell, I concede the point. "I'm going to hell. Yes. Can you leave me alone now?"”

PeopleMadeBigsLeftReligiousMistakeTalkingHellWingsRadioDebateInterpretationLeaving MeAttemptingRight WingMe AloneTheologicalLeave Me AloneBig Mistake
Author:Dan Savage
Create image

“I think it's better to have limits. My limits are different from other people's limits. I'm all for freedom, I'm all for people doing what they want. I'm also all for people shouldering the consequences of their behaviors, and not being assholes, and not lying unless they need to, and being honest except when you shouldn't, and being faithful except when it's okay to cheat. I guess I'm just a mass of contradictions.”

PeopleThinkingWantNeedsDifferentLyingHonestLimitsBehaviorMassConsequenceOkayBeing HonestFaithfulContradictionCheatBeing Faithful
Author:Dan Savage
Create image

“My dad and mom were more like World War II-era parents, even though it was the 1960s, because they were both born in the '40s. They were young adults before the '60s even happened, and married, and already having kids. But by the time we were adolescents in the '70s, the whole culture was screaming at parents, "You're a good parent if you're open with your kids about sex." They attempted to be open with us about sex, and it made them want to die, and consequently, it made us want to die.”

IfsWorldWantMadeWarWholeKidsYoungDiesCultureSexParentBornHappenedMomDadMarriedAdultsMy DadYoung AdultErasWar Of The WorldsWorld War IiWorld War I1960sWanting To DieHaving KidsGood Parent
Author:Dan Savage
Create image

“There's always something new with sex. We lived in a world without Viagra, now we live in a world with Viagra. We lived in a world without blowjobs and anilingus in the Oval Office, and then it happens and you get to write about it. We live in a world where now the government is screwing with contraception and holding back vaccines that could save 4,000 women's lives a year, and you get to write about that. It's not as much fun as anilingus in the Oval Office, but what are you going to do? If you pay attention, there's always something new, and it's always really invigorating.”

IfsWorldWritingYearsGovernmentHappensFunSexPayAttentionOfficePay AttentionSomething NewVaccinesContraceptionOvalHolding BackInvigoratingViagra
Author:Dan Savage
Create image

“You can't have Rosie on The View and Elton John packing Mom and Pop in at Caesars Palace and gay people all over television, and then have these politicians run out there with a straight face and say that gay and lesbian relationships are a threat to the family. We are winning in the culture - which is why we'll ultimately win the political war.”

PeopleWarRunningFacesPoliticalCultureWinningViewsTelevisionMomPoliticianGayThreatPopsPalacesGay PeoplePackingRosieStraight Face
Author:Dan Savage
Create image

“We've had a culture war roaring away, and the kinds of people who want to abuse and discriminate against gay people who are adults can't really lay their hands on us unless they want to be gay-bashers and go to jail. They abuse us from afar and in the abstract, they abuse us with checkbooks and ballots, but their kids go to school on Monday morning. And there's a gay kid. And they feel they have license to beat that gay kid up in a way that I don't think they did when I was in school. I think it's gotten worse.”

PeopleThinkingWayWantFeelsKindWarHandsKidsSchoolCultureMorningGayBeatsAdultsAbuseLaysAbstractJailMondayLicenseBallotsGay PeopleAfarRoaringMonday MorningBashers
Author:Dan Savage
Create image

“It really did take Billy Lucas's suicide to wake me up to, kind of, the damage of the success of the LGBT civil-rights movement - higher-profile LGBT people - has done to LGBT youth who are trapped out there in those shitholes. But I don't think we need Pride. I am still opposed, on philosophical grounds, to the flap of the rainbow windsock and the damage that does to us intellectually.”

PeopleThinkingNeedsKindDoeStillsDoneRightsMovementYouthPrideHigherPhilosophicalSuicideCivil RightsDamageLgbtTrappedRainbowCivil Rights MovementProfile
Author:Dan Savage
Create image

“I'm not good looking. I'm very strange - a very bony face on an enormous skull, and I don't like to be naked because I don't like how I look naked. And - no, no. I own a lot of my house, because I'm Irish and from people who never owned anything. So I could have a lot more trappings of wealth if every time I had 20 extra dollars I didn't pay off more of the mortgage.”

PeopleIfsLooksFacesHouseWealthPayStrangeDollarsEnormousNakedExtrasLooking GoodSkullsMortgage
Author:Dan Savage
Create image

“I started doing drag in Seattle because I started doing my column before I moved here, and then moved here and wanted to be able to go out and do things as Dan Savage without being recognized the next day, because the column was just in Seattle and it was kind of a sensation and I was beating people up. I was really worried and I didn't want to beat somebody up in a column and have that person know what I look like when I didn't know what they looked like.”

PeopleKnowsWantLooksKindPersonsAbleWantedNextBeatsMovedWorriedSensationsDragSavagesNext DayColumnsSeattle
Author:Dan Savage
Create image