Gore Vidal Quotes - Page 7

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• It is notable how little empathy is cultivated or valued in our society. I put this down to our traditional racism and obsessive sectarianism. Even so, one would think that we would be encouraged to project ourselves into the character of someone of a different race or class, if only to be able to control him. But no effort is made.

  Gore Vidal

  Character, Thinking, Race

  Gore Vidal (1992). “Screening history”, Harvard Univ Pr

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• Next to "I win," "I told you so" are the sweetest words.

  Gore Vidal

  Winning, Smugness, Next

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• I'm in favor of any form of sexual relationship that gives pleasure to those involved. And I have never heard a convincing argument to the contrary.

  Gore Vidal

  Giving, Favors, Argument

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• I liked the trichotomy, that's the only thing I ever liked.

  Gore Vidal

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• "Terrorism" is a metaphor, it's an abstract noun. It's like having a war on dandruff. It's something from advertising, it's meaningless.

  Gore Vidal

  War, Nouns, Advertising

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• To justify and extol human greed and egotism is to my mind not only immoral, but evil.

  Gore Vidal

  Evil, Greed, Mind

  "Comment, July 1961" by Gore Vidal, www.esquire.com. May 19, 2008.

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• The U.S. Bill of Rights is being steadily eroded, with two million telephone calls tapped, 30 million workers under electronic surveillance, and, says the author, countless Americans harassed by a government that wages spurious wars against drugs and terrorism.

  Gore Vidal

  War, Rights, Government

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• I have always found men quite fathomable. They look entirely to their own interest.

  Gore Vidal

  Men, Looks, Found

  Gore Vidal (2002). “Creation: a novel”, Doubleday Books

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• Politically, of course, it's to the Right, but then the whole country is to the Right.

  Gore Vidal

  Country, Courses, Whole

  "New Again: Gore Vidal". Interview with Emma Brown, Monique van Vooren, www.interviewmagazine.com. May 1, 2012.

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• Always a godfather, never a god.

  Gore Vidal

  Gore Vidal (2013). “I Told You So: Gore Vidal Talks Politics: Interviews with Jon Wiener”, p.14, Counterpoint

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• All I want is that Americans still be able to read the alphabet in a hundred years. I am not very ambitious.

  Gore Vidal

  Years, Ambitious, Want

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• Writing of history is our only heuristic principle. The Germans have a word for it, einfühlen. It is the ability to experience the past in the present and to recreate it. In my books, I have tried to recreate it in the most natural way possible: History must be integrated into the story without the weight of premonition.

  Gore Vidal

  Book, Writing, Past

  "The End of Gore Vidal". Interview with Lila Azam Zanganeh, www.guernicamag.com. August 15, 2012.

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• In the First Amendment to the Constitution, the Founders made it clear that this was not to be a sky-god nation with a national religion like that of England, from whom we had just separated. It is curious how little understood this amendment is-yes, everyone has a right to worship any god he chooses but he does not have the right to impose his beliefs on others who do not happen to share in his superstitions and taboos.

  Gore Vidal

  Sky, Religion, Doe

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• The United States is my subject, but as Hawthorne once wrote, "the United States are suited for many admirable purposes, but not to live in."

  Gore Vidal

  United States, Purpose, Hawthorne

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• Between Malraux, Balzac, and Montaigne, I choose Montaigne. Montaigne will survive all the others, because the essay, meaning direct communication between the writer and his reader, will outlast the novel, by at least a thousand years.

  Gore Vidal

  Communication, Years, Balzac

  "The End of Gore Vidal". Interview with Lila Azam Zanganeh, www.guernicamag.com. August 15, 2012.

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• We're the most captive nation of slaves that ever came along. The moral timidity of the average American is quite noticeable. Everybody's afraid to be thought in any way different from everyone else.

  Gore Vidal

  Average, Different, Way

  "Gore Vidal: What I've Learned". Interview with Mike Sager, www.esquire.com. August 1, 2012.

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• Perfect love sometimes does not come until the first grandchild.

  Gore Vidal

  Grandma, Grandmother, Grandchildren

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• I’m exactly as I appear. There is no warm, lovable person inside. Beneath my cold exterior, once you break the ice, you find cold water.

  Gore Vidal

  Ice, Water, Cold

  "Gore Vidal and the Sky God" by R. Albert Mohler, Jr., www.christianpost.com. August 7, 2012.

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• Art is not a democracy, in fact art is the enemy of democracy

  Gore Vidal

  Art, Enemy, Democracy

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• I was taught to read by my grandmother. Central to her method was a tale of unnatural love called 'The Duck and the Kangaroo'. Then, because my grandfather, Senator Gore, was blind, I was required early on to read grown-up books to him, mostly constitutional law and, of course, the Congressional Record. The later continence of my style is a miracle, considering those years of piping the additional remarks of Mr. Borah of Idaho.

  Gore Vidal

  Children, Book, Grandmother

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• Litigation takes the place of sex at middle age.

  Gore Vidal

  Sex, Age, Middle

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• I'm devoted to promiscuity, and always have been. I believe the more you do, the better it is for you. I'm a great health nut, and sex is, I think, absolutely marvelous for the whole system; tones you up.

  Gore Vidal

  Sex, Believe, Thinking

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• I write in the morning at a table, longhand on yellow legal pads, just like Nixon, when I’m doing fiction.

  Gore Vidal

  Morning, Writing, Yellow

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• If [drugs] didn't exist, our government would have to invent them, the better to enact laws aimed at keeping the citizens "sinless and obedient."

  Gore Vidal

  Government, Law, Drug

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• It was a pity that movies and live TV left New York for Hollywood. London theater, movies, television - until (Britain's) money ran out - were always better than ours since the city was the political capital of the country, as well as the artistic and literary one. In L.A. we've always been slightly sealed off from real life. It's no accident that two of our most interesting directors, Woody Allen and Bob Altman, are more or less settled in the real world.

  Gore Vidal

  Country, New York, Real

  Source: articles.latimes.com

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