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1 " My first female lover was a Jewish woman. She was butch, but not in a swaggering macho way- she could pass as a yeshiva boy, pale and intense. Small, almost fragile, she exuded a powerful sense of herself. She had not been to a synagogue in years, but kept the law of kashrut, and taught me my first prayers in Hebrew. She cooked, she read, she ironed her dress shirts and polished her boots meticulously, and admired femme women enormously. She was also the first person ever- including myself- to bring me to multiple orgasms. She taught me to ask for what I wanted in bed, then encouraged me to expect it from her and future lovers. She taught me to get her off with fingers, tongue, lips, sex toys, and my voice. She showed me how to masturbate in different positions, and fisted me during my menstrual cramps to provide an internal massage- and to demonstrate that a sexual act without orgasm was also an acceptable, intimate act. She never separated sexuality from the rest of her life; it was as integral to her as her Judaism.This was how I wanted to be. Not just sexually, although certainly that way too. This is how I wanted to move through the world.-- Karen Taylor (from "Daughters of Zelophehad") "
― Lawrence Schimel , First Person Queer: Who We Are (So Far)
2 " How To Make A Human Take the cat out of the sphinx and what is left? Riddle Me That. Take the horse from the centaurand you take away the sleek grace,the strength of harnessed power. What is left can still run across fields,after a fashion, but is easily winded;what is left will therefore erect buildings to divide the open plains so he no longer must face the wide expanse where once his equine legs raced the winds and, sometimes, won. Take the bull from the Minotaur but what is left will still assemble a herd for the sake of ruling over it.What is left will kill for sport, in an arena thronged with spectators shouting "Ole" at each deadly thrust.Take the fish from the Merman: What is left can still swim,if only with lots of splashing; gone is the sleek sliding through the waves, alert to the subtle changes in the current. What is left will build ships so he can cross the oceans without getting his feet wet, what is left won't care if his boats pollute the seas he can no longer breathe so long as their passage can keep him from sinking.Take the goat from the satyr but what is left will dance out of reach before you have the chance to get that Dionysian streak of myschief,the love of music and wine, the rutting parts that like to party all the day through.What is left will still be stubborn and refuse to give way; what is left will lock horns and butt heads with anyone who challenges him. Take the bird from the harpy,but the memory of flying, a constant yearning ache for skies so tantalizingly distant,will still remain, as will the established pecking orders, the bitter squabbling over food and territory, and the magpie eye that lusts for shining objects.What is left will cut down the whole forest to feather his sprawling urban nest.At the end of these operations, tell me: what is left? The answer: Man, a creature divorced from nature, who's forgotten where he came from. "
― Lawrence Schimel
3 " I cried for what should have been. "
― Lawrence Schimel , The Mammoth Book of New Gay Erotica
4 " Say what you want, but gay guys who've been where you are—there're a loyal breed of animal. "
5 " A library is not to be read completely, but to be consulted. Here there are books which are around just in case. I have read all my life, but there are many things about which I know nothing. What's important is not to have everything in one's head but to know where to find it. The difference between someone who's vain and someone who's wise is that the vain man only appreciates what he already knows, and the wise man searches for what he doesn't yet know. "
