G’s Reviews > Born to Run > Status Update

“The immersion in Village life, with the hippies, the gays, the drug dealers […] in Greenwich Village in 1968, I could walk with my freak flag held high and nobody was going to bust me.” (p. 92)

“If you carried enough personal weight and magic, if you were powerful enough, you could be different […] You could be who you were and the rest would just have to stand down and let it be.” (p. 85)

“and the Motown divas, men and women, who know you’ve got to play a little bit of the white man’s/rich man’s game. You have to make thoughtful compromises that don’t sell out your soul, that let you reach just a little bit higher until your moment comes and then /you/ set the rules.” (p. 79)

“His first response was laughter. It was funny. Then, not so funny. Then, he got angry. Then, finally, [my dad] popped his burning question: ‘Bruce, are you queer?’ He wasn’t kidding. He’d have to get over it. But first, it would get a lot nastier.” (p. 50)

“I do know this is what [Elvis] did: lived a life he was driven to live and brought forth the truth that was within him and the possibilities within us. How many of us can say that? That we committed all of our selves to something?” (p. 41)