“I think (when) 15 years go by on any personnel policy, it’s appropriate to take another look at it – see how it’s working, ask the hard questions, hear from the military. Start with a Pentagon study. ... The policy was the right policy for the right time, and times change. It’s appropriate to take another look.”

“In ’75 they offered me the cover of Time to come out – because they needed a gay story, not because they wanted me to come out or because they were going to do anything particularly correct about gay life. (But) I didn’t want to be known as a gay comedian; I wanted to be known as a human comedian. I don’t think gay people’s experience as humans is so different from any other humans’. I was never secretive, but I never held a press conference.”

“No one in a bar is cruising these days! (And I don’t just mean they’re not cruising ME.) The reason for this hideous turn of events is quite simple: They already got laid 80 times that day thanks to Internet hookups! ... Manhunt has completely destroyed the sexual frisson in once-alluring nightspots!”

“I love upsetting groups, especially groups that are self-righteous. Anything fundamental is bad. If you say, ‘Well, I’m a fundamentalist (blank),’ whatever it is, be careful. I love messing with the Christians. I love messing with the Scientologists. I love messing with anything that is politically correct. The reason that I gravitate toward the gay community is that … they are unified and mobilized and they are writing laws and getting laws passed. But, at the same time … more so than any other group, they have such a great sense of humor about themselves. When you are part of an oppressed minority, you have to laugh.”