Larry Kramer, inside his normal heart

[William769]

“I know something’s wrong.”

That isn’t just the opening line of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart, which starts performances on Oct. 14 at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, it could also be the mantra for the author’s life.

The 76-year-old Kramer is an Oscar-nominated screenwriter (Women in Love) and Obie-winning playwright (The Destiny of Me) whose various other works earned him an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, but the title which clings to him more strongly is “AIDS activist.”

“I don’t know why I always have to be the one who keeps asking the questions, but that’s just the way it is,” says Kramer on the phone from his Manhattan home with a world-weary sigh that he’s certainly earned the right to.

When gay friends of his started mysteriously getting ill in 1980, then began dying the following year, he joined together with some friends to form the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, to raise funds and provide help for people afflicted by the still-unnamed disease.

http://www.thestar.com/article/1065789--the-big-interview-larry-kramer-inside-his-normal-heart

[MuseRider]

1. Nice interview.

I would have killed to get to see the revival of The Normal Heart but even killing was not going to get me there sadly :-) I heard they are making a movie of it? I hope they don't wreck it and that they stay true to the story, and maybe name the names he could not originally.

I have always thought Larry Kramer was very important. Abrasive sometimes but so what? He was angry about something there was no reason to approach any other way.

Thanks for posting this, I am glad I saw it and was able to read it.