Gore Vidal Quotes - Page 17

Quotes about:

• If most men and women were forced to rely upon physical charm to attract lovers, their sexual lives would be not only meager but in a youth-worshiping country like America painfully brief.

  Gore Vidal

  Country, Men, Rely Upon

  Gore Vidal (1968). “Sex, Death, and Money”

  8 Copy quote

• I don't think contemporary writers spend a lot of time reading each other. Particularly writers of the same nationality.

  Gore Vidal

  Reading, Thinking, Contemporary

  Source: www.esquire.com

  4 Copy quote

• In large Victorian houses with many rooms and heavy doors, the occupants could be mysterious and exciting to one another in a way that those who live in rackety developments can never hope to be. Not even the lust of a Lord Byron could survive the fact of Levittown.

  Gore Vidal

  Doors, House, Lust

  Gore Vidal (1969). “Reflections Upon a Sinking Ship. (1. Ed.)”, Boston : Little, Brown

  4 Copy quote

• In a society like ours, politics is improvisation. To the artful dodger rather than the true believer goes the prize.

  Gore Vidal

  Politician, Believer, Improvisation

  Gore Vidal (1968). “Sex, Death, and Money”

  4 Copy quote

• Love, like a sense of humor, is now claimed by everyone even though Love, like a sense of humor, is rather more rare than not, and to most of us poor muddlers unbearable at full strength.

  Gore Vidal

  Love, Unbearable, Sense Of Humor

  4 Copy quote

• All Americans born between 1890 and 1945 wanted to be movie stars.

  Gore Vidal

  Movie, Stars, Born

  4 Copy quote

• Of course his dust would be absorbed in other living things and to that degree at least he would exist again, though it was plain enough that the specific combination which was he would never exist again.

  Gore Vidal

  Atheist, Dust, Atheism

  Gore Vidal (1965). “The City and the Pillar Revised: Including an Essay: Sex and the Law, and An Afterword”, New American Library of Canada

  4 Copy quote

• Gentlemen are not supposed to tell the truth about their sex lives, nor are ladies, for that matter. Of course Clinton lied - as would anybody in his position.

  Gore Vidal

  Sex, Gentleman, Matter

  4 Copy quote

• Despite the warnings of other times, the impetuous and the confident continue their indiscriminate cultivation of weeds at the expense of occasional flowers.

  Gore Vidal

  Weed, Flower, Criticism

  Gore Vidal (1968). “Sex, Death, and Money”

  10 Copy quote

• It is ironic that a nation that has never experienced a coup d'etat should be so obsessed with the idea of conspiracy.

  Gore Vidal

  Ideas, Ironic, Conspiracy

  Gore Vidal (1968). “Sex, Death, and Money”

  7 Copy quote

• A current pejorative adjective is narcissistic. Generally, a narcissist is anyone better looking than you are, but lately the adective is often applied to those "liberals" who prefer to improve the lives of others rather than exploit them. Apparently, a concern for others is self-love at its least attractive, while greed is now a sign of the hightest altruism. But then to reverse, periodically, the meanings of words is a very small price to pay for our vast freedom not only to conform but to consume.

  Gore Vidal

  Self, Concern For Others, Greed

  "Screening History (Growing Up With Gore Vidal)". Book by Gore Vidal (p. 24), 1994.

  4 Copy quote

• Write what you think, what you imagine, what you suspect!

  Gore Vidal

  Writing, Thinking, Imagine

  Gore Vidal (1999). “The Essential Gore Vidal”, Random House Incorporated

  4 Copy quote

• It is natural for men to want power. But to seek power actively takes a temperament baffling to both the simple and the wise. The simple cannot fathom how any man would dare presume to prevail, while the wise are amazed that any reasonable man would want the world, assuming he could get it.

  Gore Vidal

  Wise, Men, Power

  4 Copy quote

• For half a century photography has been the "art form" of the untalented. Obviously some pictures are more satisfactory than others, but where is credit due? To the designer of the camera? to the finger on the button? to the law of averages?

  Gore Vidal

  Photography, Art, Law

  Gore Vidal (1982). “The second American revolution and other essays (1976-1982)”, Random House Inc

  18 Copy quote

• anyone who sings about love and harmony and life [john lennon] is dangerous to someone who sings about death and killing and subduing [Nixon]

  Gore Vidal

  Killing, Harmony, Lennon

  4 Copy quote

• Miss Rand now tells us that what we have thought was right is really wrong. The lesson should have read: One for one and none for all.

  Gore Vidal

  Should Have, Missing, Lessons

  5 Copy quote

• To hear two American men congratulating each other on being heterosexual is one of the most chilling experiences - and unique to the United States. You don't hear two Italians sitting around complimenting each other because they actually like to go to bed with women. The American is hysterical about his manhood.

  Gore Vidal

  Unique, Men, Two

  4 Copy quote

• The most interesting thing about writing is the way that it obliterates time. Three hours seem like three minutes. Then there is the business of surprise. I never know what is coming next. The phrase that sounds in the head changes when it appears on the page. Then I start probing it with a pen, finding new meanings. Sometimes I burst out laughing at what is happening as I twist and turn sentences. Strange business, all in all. One never gets to the end of it. That’s why I go on, I suppose. To see what the next sentences I write will be.

  Gore Vidal

  Writing, Laughing, Interesting

  5 Copy quote

• Laughing at someone else is an excellent way of learning how to laugh at oneself; and questioning what seem to be the absurd beliefs of another group is a good way of recognizing the potential absurdity of many of one's own cherished beliefs.

  Gore Vidal

  Sarcasm, Laughing, Way

  8 Copy quote

• Now you have people in Washington who have no interest in the country at all. They're interested in their companies, their corporations grabbing Caspian oil.

  Gore Vidal

  Country, Oil, People

  7 Copy quote

• This might explain why Obama gave billions to Wall Street crooks, and dragged the Iraq and Afghan wars on and on.
  Happily for the busy lunatics who rule over us, we are permanently the United States of Amnesia. We learn nothing because we remember nothing... We have ceased to be a nation under law but instead a homeland where the withered Bill of Rights, like a dead trumpet vine, clings to our pseudo-Roman columns.

  Gore Vidal

  Wall, War, Rights

  4 Copy quote

• I'm a born - again atheist.

  Gore Vidal

  Atheist, Religion, Atheism

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  16 Copy quote

• The first TV babies are now writing with a TV mind that has no attention span at all.

  Gore Vidal

  Baby, Writing, Mind

  4 Copy quote

• Obviously I'm in favor of protecting the rights of everybody: gay, black, women, what have you, American Indians.

  Gore Vidal

  Gay, Rights, Black

  "Fresh Air Remembers Writer And Critic Gore Vidal". www.npr.org. August 2, 2012.

  4 Copy quote

• U.S. certainly are not warlike. We don't want that. We want to make money, which I always thought was one of the most admirable things about Americans.

  Gore Vidal

  Want, Making Money, Admirable

  4 Copy quote

Page 17 of 19

First

← Prev

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin