Andrew Solomon
Andrew Solomon
Andrew Solomonis a writer on politics, culture and psychology, who lives in New York and London. He has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Artforum, Travel and Leisure, and other publications on a range of subjects, including depression, Soviet artists, the cultural rebirth of Afghanistan, Libyan politics, and Deaf politics. His book The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression won the 2001 National Book Award, was a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize, and was included in...
ProfessionWriter
gay someday figures
Being gay is immutable. Maybe someday we'll figure out more of the science and it will be changeable, but we have no leads so far.
opposites want too-much
I found myself losing interest in almost everything, I didn't want to do any of the things I had previously wanted to do and I didn't know why. Everything there was to do seemed like too much work. The opposite of depression is not happiness, but vitality, and it was vitality that seemed to seep away from me in that moment.
tragedy benefits
The tragedies that are being brought about vastly outweigh the benefits that are being achieved.
the-end-of-the-day kind ends
At the end of the day, will God be interested primarily in whether I have been kind and helped others, or in whether I was baptized and how?
gay thinking culture
And I found out about the wonderful world of sign language. I suddenly realized: If we as a society recognize Jewish culture, gay culture and Latino culture, we must recognize that this is a coherent culture, too. I think deafness is a disability for social constructionist reasons.
father people parent
I was in fact anxious about whether I would be any good at being a father. And then I met so many people who had been good parents under difficult circumstances, and I felt inspired by them.
realizing humbling
It's deeply humbling to realize that there is no such thing as a society with a purchase on truth.
differences people comforting
I found it very comforting to see that there is no such thing as a completely normal family. People find their way through whatever the differences may be.
errors looks done
I just look at my own life, which is full of error as all life is. I have done plenty of things that I am not proud of.
growing-up people damage
I did grow up in a household in which I felt that to be myself was to damage the people I loved.
connections deep-connections upbringing
I'd had a vaguely Jewish upbringing, but no deep connection to faith.
meaningful children growing-up
I grew up feeling that to be gay was a tragedy. I didn't grow up thinking that it was morally wrong, but I grew up thinking that it would make me marginal, prevent me from having children, and quite possibly prevent me from having a meaningful long relationship. It seemed that this condition would leave me with a vastly reduced life.
gay people stories
The more gay people can tell our stories, the more other people will accept gay people.
gay happy-life perception
What has become clear to me is that it is not the inherent nature of being gay that causes such a reduced life; it is, rather, the social circumstances around being gay: the perceptions of it and the cultural norms that it is said to violate. As some of those norms have changed, I have been able to be gay, to have a marriage, to have a family, and to have - if there is wood to knock on - a fortunate and happy life.