"I don't even know why straight people want to get married because you invite the government in your bedroom."

"But that's okay. It seems to be a very basic human need that I don't share." — says lesbian novelist Rita Mae Brown, who wrote that book "Rubyfruit Jungle" and who got kicked out of NOW. Time Magazine asks her what she thinks of gay marriage and she says "I don't understand it."

Asked about coming out as a gay person, she says:

The funny thing is, I don't believe in straight or gay. I really don't. I think we're all degrees of bisexual. There may be a few people on the extreme if it's a bell curve who really truly are gay or really truly are straight. Because nobody had ever said these things and used their real name, I suddenly became the only lesbian in America. It was hysterical. It was a misnomer, but it's okay. It was a fight worth fighting.

She seems pretty sharp and irreverent. Lots of animals too: 11 cats, 5 house dogs, and a pack of fox hounds (i.e., 70 hounds). She's the Master of Hounds at Oak Ridge Fox Hunt Club.

Do you ever hear about somebody whose life is so interesting that you're envious, even though you don't want to do any of the things that person does?