Quotes from And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic

Randy Shilts ·  656 pages

Rating: (18.8K votes)


“How very American, he thought, to look at a disease as homosexual or heterosexual, as if viruses had the intelligence to choose between different inclinations of human behavior.”
― Randy Shilts, quote from And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic


“What society judged was not the severity of the disease but the social acceptability of the individuals affected with it…”
― Randy Shilts, quote from And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic


“We will not have any of these cases in the Soviet Union,” said a Soviet delegate confidently. Don Francis couldn’t resist saying to Marc Conant in his loudest stage whisper, “And they won’t, all right.” In a stern Russian accent, Francis continued: “You have AIDS—bang, bang, bang.” The Soviets were not amused.”
― Randy Shilts, quote from And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic


“Most importantly, the epidemic was only news when it was not killing homosexuals. In this sense, AIDS remained a fundamentally gay disease, newsworthy only by the virtue of the fact that it sometimes hit people who weren't gay,”
― Randy Shilts, quote from And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic


“Legionnaire’s disease hit a group of predominantly white, heterosexual, middle-aged members of the American Legion. The respectability of the victims brought them a degree of attention and funding for research and treatment far greater than that made available so far to the victims of Kaposi’s sarcoma.
I want to emphasize the contrast, because the more popular Legionnaire’s disease affected fewer people and proved less likely to be fatal. What society judged was not the severity of the disease but the social acceptability of the individuals affected with it…. I intend to fight any effort by anyone at any level to make public health policy regarding Kaposi’s sarcoma or any other disease on the basis of his or her personal prejudices regarding other people’s sexual preferences or life-styles”
― Randy Shilts, quote from And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic



“It was a truism to people active in the gay movement that the greatest impediments to homosexuals’ progress often were not heterosexual bigots but closeted homosexuals.”
― Randy Shilts, quote from And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic


“The closeted homosexual is far less likely to demand fair or just treatment for his kind, because to do so would call attention to himself.”
― Randy Shilts, quote from And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic


“and that it would come here too. Paul”
― Randy Shilts, quote from And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic


“The primary cause of death was listed as cryptococcal pneumonia, which was a consequence of his Kaposi’s sarcoma and Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. Those, however, were only the obvious diseases. The KS lesions, it turned out, covered not only his skin but also his lungs, bronchi, spleen, bladder, lymph nodes, mouth, and adrenal glands. His eyes were infected not only with cytomegalovirus but also with Cryptococcus and the Pneumocystis protozoa. It was the first time the pathologist could recall seeing the protozoa infect a person’s eye. Ken’s mother claimed his body from the hospital the day after he died. By the afternoon, Ken’s remains were cremated and tucked into a small urn. His Kaposi’s sarcoma had led to the discovery in San Francisco of the epidemic that would later be called Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. He had been the first KS case in the country reported to a disbelieving Centers for Disease Control just eight months before. Now, he was one of eighteen such stricken people in San Francisco and the fourth man in the city to die in the epidemic, the seventy-fourth to die in the United States. There would be many, many more.”
― Randy Shilts, quote from And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic


About the author

Randy Shilts
Born place: in Davenport, Iowa, The United States
Born date August 8, 1951
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Even a strong child, a powerful child, would be dependent on the adults around her. If her strength could unnerve him, how would her people, her family, react if they ever discovered what was contained inside that small husk? Would they accept the child who already was the strongest Queen in the history of the Blood, or would they fear the power? And if they feared the power, would they try to cut her off from it by breaking her? A Virgin Night performed with malevolent skill could strip her of her power while leaving the rest intact. But, since her inner web was so deep in the abyss, she might be able to withdraw far enough to withstand the physical violation—unless the male was able to descend deep enough into the abyss to threaten her even there. Was there a male strong enough, dark enough, vicious enough? There was…one." - Saetan”
― Anne Bishop, quote from Daughter of the Blood


“We all have things that come back to haunt us. Some of us just see them more clearly than others.”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Plain Truth


“...as nervous as a bird in a coal mine.”
― Jim Butcher, quote from Grave Peril


“If you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? - Carpe - hear it? – Carpe, Carpe Diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary.”
― N.H. Kleinbaum, quote from Dead Poets Society


“Ridicule was a better defense than truth.”
― Anne McCaffrey, quote from The Dragonriders of Pern


Interesting books

In Our Time
(16.8K)
In Our Time
by Ernest Hemingway
The Crown Tower
(22K)
The Crown Tower
by Michael J. Sullivan
A Dance to the Music of Time: 1st Movement
(3.6K)
A Dance to the Music...
by Anthony Powell
The Boleyn Inheritance
(73.4K)
The Boleyn Inheritan...
by Philippa Gregory
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel
(9.8K)
The True Story of Ha...
by Louise Murphy
Julian
(5.1K)
Julian
by Gore Vidal

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.