113 Gore Vidal Quotes for You to Enjoy

Gore Vidal

American Novelist

Born: Oct 3, 1925

Died: Jul 31, 2012

About American Life People World You

Related authors: Elie Wiesel Ernest Hemingway H. P. Lovecraft James Baldwin John Updike Leo Rosten Nathaniel Hawthorne Richard Bach

By the end of World War II, we were the most powerful and least damaged of the great nations. We also had most of the money. America's hegemony lasted exactly five years. Gore Vidal

War Great World Money Lasted Exactly Great Nations Had Powerful Most Also Most Powerful Least Were Years End Five America Nations Hegemony World War Damaged World War II

World War II made prosperous the United States, which had been undergoing a depression for a dozen years, and made very rich those magnates and their managers who govern the republic - with many a wink - in the people's name. Gore Vidal

Depression War People World Made Rich States Those Wink Had Name Prosperous Undergoing Govern Been Years Very Managers Which Republic Who Many United United States Dozen World War World War II

TV news is not very instructive. Gore Vidal

News TV TV News Very

A friend was surprised to hear me say that there was not one moment of my past that I would like to relive. Gore Vidal

Me Past Say Would Relive Like Surprised Hear Friend Moment

I've yet to read a memoir by anyone I've known at all well that came anywhere near to the truth. Gore Vidal

Truth Memoir Well Read Known Came Anyone Anywhere Near

If you are a Representative and want to be a Senator, you must be careful not to do anything which might upset the various forces you need to harness to get elected. Gore Vidal

You Harness Must Be Careful Various Forces Get Senator Representative Upset Want Anything Which Might Elected Need Careful

It is true, as Sartre once wrote, referring to French Army atrocities in Algeria, that the real tragedy in our time is that any of us can be, interchangeably, victim or torturer. Gore Vidal

Time Army Victim Algeria Our Once Our Time Atrocities True French Wrote Real Referring Tragedy Any Us Sartre

Fortunately, our audiences are used to a kind of boredom in the theatre, and if the writer is skillful, he will flatter them into thinking: 'Why, that's us up there, and aren't we - for all our little foibles - pretty nice guys and gals?' Gore Vidal

Most children tell themselves stories in which they figure as powerful figures, enjoying the pleasures not only of the adult world as they conceive it but of a world of wonders unlike dull reality. Gore Vidal

Reality World Unlike Pleasures Tell Only Adult Powerful Conceive Most Dull Wonders Children Stories Which Themselves Figure Figures Enjoying

No sooner does an American president take his oath of office than the speculation begins: Will he be reelected in four years' time? If not, who will succeed him? A member of his own party? The other party? Gore Vidal

Time Will Party Own Other President Member Oath Take He Sooner Him Does His Years Than Begins Office American Succeed American President Who Four Speculation

For every Scott Fitzgerald concerned with the precise word and the selection of relevant incident, there are a hundred American writers, many well-regarded, who appear to believe that one word is just as good as another and that everything which occurs to them is worth putting down. Gore Vidal

Good Worth Word Down Believe Every Everything Hundred Relevant One Word Selection Writers Putting Concerned Another Occurs Fitzgerald Scott American Precise Just Which Them Who Incident Many American Writers Appear

Most of our writers tend to be recorders. Gore Vidal

Our Tend Writers Most

I don't know how prisoners of war are ever heroes unless they escape. Gore Vidal

War Heroes Unless Know How Prisoners Escape Ever

By 1939, the Depression was back. Unemployment was huge. Roosevelt didn't have any quick fix. Remember, the New Deal, Works Progress Administration, and Civilian Conservation Corps - all that happened years before. Roosevelt was riding a storm. Gore Vidal

Depression Progress Remember Before Back Corps Administration Civilian New New Deal Deal Years Huge Quick Unemployment Fix Any Happened Storm Roosevelt Works Riding Conservation

I think I have a normal threshold of anger, but it's true that I am, by nature, belligerent. Gore Vidal

Nature Anger Threshold Think True Am Normal Belligerent

Each youth betrays considerable anxiety about the wedding night ahead. Gore Vidal

Youth Anxiety Considerable About Betrays Wedding Each Night

After the French Revolution, the world money power shifted from Paris to London. For three generations, the British maintained an old-fashioned colonial empire, as well as a modern empire based on London's primacy in the money markets. Gore Vidal

Some have deplored Lincoln's indifference to Christianity. But it was not religion, it was religiosity that put him off. Gore Vidal

Religion Christianity Some Indifference Put Him Lincoln Off

We're not a democracy. Gore Vidal

Democracy

Writing fiction has become a priestly business in countries that have lost their faith. Gore Vidal

Faith Business Writing Become Lost Priestly Countries Fiction

My father once said something very shrewd about me to a woman journalist who had told him how courageous she thought I was for always speaking my mind. My father said, 'If you couldn't care less what anyone says about you, then it's not courage.' Gore Vidal

Me You Woman Courage Care Father Mind Thought Journalist Once Says About Something Had She Him Courageous Said Always How Very Anyone Then Speaking Less Who Shrewd

Since we have literally targeted our enemies, the Pentagon assumes that, sooner or later, rogues will take out our cities, presumably from spaceships. Gore Vidal

Enemies Will Assumes Our Later Out Presumably Cities Pentagon Take Sooner Sooner Or Later Since Targeted Rogues Literally

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