I lost relatives to AIDS, a couple of my closest cousins. I lost friends to AIDS, high-school friends who never even made it to their 21st birthdays in the '80s. When it's that close to you, you can't really deny it, and you can't run from it.
My audience was my life. What I did and how I did it, was all for my audience.
Art is beauty, the perpetual invention of detail, the choice of words, the exquisite care of execution.