Editing Bret Easton Ellis (section)

==Personal life==
When asked in an interview in 2002 whether he was gay, Ellis explained that he did not identify as gay or straight, but was comfortable being thought of as homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual and enjoyed playing with his persona, identifying variously as gay, straight, and bisexual to different people over the years.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Attractions of Bret Easton Ellis|url=http://www.metroweekly.com/feature/?ak=126|first=Randy|last=Shulman|date=October 10, 2002|access-date=April 13, 2009}}</ref> In a February 1999 interview, Ellis suggested that his reluctance to definitively label his sexuality was for "artistic reasons". "If people knew that I was straight, they'd read [my books] in a different way. If they knew I was gay, ''Psycho'' would be read as a different book," he told the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''.<ref>{{cite news|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|last=Martelle|first=Scott|title=The Dark Side of a Generation|date=February 1, 1999|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-feb-01-cl-3631-story.html|access-date=September 10, 2013}}</ref> In an interview with [[Robert F. Coleman]], Ellis said he had an "indeterminate sexuality", that "any other interviewer out there will get a different answer and it just depends on the mood I am in".<ref name=RobertFColeman>{{cite web|url=http://robertfcoleman.com/index.php/2010/08/bret-easton-ellis-interview-part-one/|title=Bret Easton Ellis interview|last=Coleman|first=Robert F.|access-date=December 20, 2010|date=August 22, 2010|publisher=RobertFColeman.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101110222427/http://robertfcoleman.com/index.php/2010/08/bret-easton-ellis-interview-part-one/|archive-date=November 10, 2010}}</ref>

In a 2011 interview with [[James Brown (editor)|James Brown]], Ellis again said that his answers to questions about his sexuality have varied and discussed being labelled "bi" by a ''[[Details (magazine)|Details]]'' interviewer. "I think the last time I slept with a woman was five or six years ago, so the bi thing can only be played out so long", he said. "But I still use it, I still say it."<ref name=SabotageTimes>{{cite web|last=Brown |first=James |author-link=James Brown (editor) |work=Sabotage Times |url=http://www.sabotagetimes.com/people/patrick-bateman-was-me/ |title=Patrick Bateman was Me |access-date=February 7, 2011 |date=January 27, 2011 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110414191008/http://www.sabotagetimes.com/people/patrick-bateman-was-me/ |archive-date=April 14, 2011  }}</ref> Responding to [[Dan Savage]]'s [[It Gets Better]] campaign, aimed at preventing [[suicide among LGBT youth]], Ellis [[Twitter|tweeted]], "Not to bum everyone out, but can we get a reality check here? It gets worse."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2011-04-14 |title=American Psycho Author Bret Easton Ellis Likens Glee to a "Puddle of HIV" |url=https://www.today.com/popculture/american-psycho-author-bret-easton-ellis-likens-glee-puddle-hiv-wbna42581495 |access-date=2024-02-04 |website=TODAY.com |language=en}}</ref> In a 2012 op-ed for ''[[The Daily Beast]]'', while apologizing for a series of controversial tweets, Ellis [[coming out|came out as gay]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Dear Kathryn Bigelow: Bret Easton Ellis Is Really Sorry|url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/12/17/dear-kathryn-bigelow-bret-easton-ellis-is-really-sorry.html|first=Bret Easton|last=Ellis|newspaper=The Daily Beast |date=December 17, 2012|access-date=December 18, 2012}}</ref>

''Lunar Park'' was dedicated to Ellis's lover, Michael Wade Kaplan, who died shortly before he finished the book and to Ellis's father, Robert Ellis, who died in 1992. In one interview Ellis described feeling a liberation in the completion of the novel that allowed him to come to terms with unresolved issues about his father.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://chuckpalahniuk.net/features/interviews/breteastonellis/|title=Bret Easton Ellis|access-date=September 26, 2007|author=Dennis Widmyer|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071018072849/http://www.chuckpalahniuk.net/features/interviews/breteastonellis/|archive-date=October 18, 2007}}</ref> In the "author Q&A" for ''Lunar Park'' on the [[Random House]] website, Ellis comments on his relationship with Robert, and says he feels that his father was a "tough case" who left him damaged. Having grown older and "mellow[ed] out", Ellis describes how his opinion of his father changed since 15&nbsp;years ago when writing ''Glamorama'' (in which the central conspiracy concerns the relationship of a father and son).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780375412912&view=qa|title=A Conversation with Bret Easton Ellis|access-date=September 26, 2007 }}</ref>

Earlier in his career, Ellis said he based the character Patrick Bateman in ''American Psycho'' on his father;<ref name="batmanfather">{{cite web| url = http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307264305&view=auqa| title = Author Q & A: A conversation with Bret Easton Ellis| publisher = randomhouse.com| access-date = February 25, 2007}}</ref> however, in a 2010 interview, the author said he had lied about this explanation. Explaining that "Patrick Bateman was about me," he said, "I didn't want to finally own up to the responsibility of being Patrick Bateman, so I laid it on my father, I laid it on Wall Street." In reality, the book was "about me at the time, and I wrote about all my rage and feelings."<ref name=RobertFColeman/> To James Brown, he clarified that Bateman was based on "my father a little bit but I was living that lifestyle; my father wasn't in New York the same age as Patrick Bateman, living in the same building, going to the same places that Patrick Bateman was going to."<ref name=SabotageTimes/>

Ellis named his first novel and his 2010 novel after two [[Elvis Costello]] references: "[[Less than Zero (Elvis Costello song)|Less than Zero]]" and ''[[Imperial Bedroom]]'', respectively. Ellis called [[Bruce Springsteen]] his "musical hero" in a 2010 interview with ''[[NME]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/bret-easton-ellis-pieces-of-me-773471 |title=Bret Easton Ellis -- Pieces of Me |last=Blog |first=NME |date=August 5, 2010 |website=NME |access-date=August 24, 2018}}</ref> 

In 2023, when asked about his political views, Ellis replied, "I'm not a [[conservative]] or a [[liberalism|liberal]]. At least in the US, I can't agree with either of them. I think they're both completely bonkers."<ref>{{cite news|last=Schwartz|first=Ian|title=Bret Easton Ellis: Gen X Is The Most Conservative Of The Generations Because We Had The Most Freedom|url=https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2023/02/06/bret_easton_ellis_gen_x_is_the_most_conservative_of_the_generations_because_we_had_the_most_freedom.html |work=RealClearPolitics|date=6 February 2023}}</ref>