History is idle gossip about a happening whose truth is lost the instant it has taken place. Gore Vidal More Quotes by Gore Vidal More Quotes From Gore Vidal Sex is. There is nothing more to be done about it. Sex builds no roads, writes no novels and sex certainly gives no meaning to anything in life but itself. Gore Vidal writinggivingsex 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 oilcountrypeople That loyal retainer of the Chase Manhattan Bank, the American president. Gore Vidal manhattanloyalpresident That is sad until one recalls how many bad books the world may yet be spared because of the busyness of writers. Gore Vidal maybookworld Television is now so desperately hungry for material that they're scraping the top of the barrel. Gore Vidal literaturefunnytelevision Many writers who choose to be active in the world lose not virtue but time, and that stillness without which literature cannot be made. Gore Vidal hygieneliteratureworld Litigation takes the place of sex at middle age. Gore Vidal middleagesex ...you will do more harm than good by attempting to supplant old dogmas and customs with new dogmas. It will be the same in the end except that the old is less militant, less dangerous than a new order imposed by enthusiasts. Gore Vidal dogmaendsorder What is in question is a kind of book reviewing which seems to be more and more popular: the loose putting down of opinions as though they were facts, and the treating of facts as though they were opinions. Gore Vidal literaturebookfacts The last best hope of earth, two trillion dollars in debt, is spinning out of control, and all we can do is stare at a flickering cathode-ray tube as Ollie answers questions on TV while the press, resolutely irrelevant as ever, asks politicians if they have committed adultery. From V-J Day 1945 to this has been, my fellow countrymen, a perfect nightmare. Gore Vidal lastsperfecttwo I have always regarded as a stroke of good fortune that I was not born or brought up in a small American town; they may be the backbone of the nation, but they are also the backbone of ignorance, bigotry, and boredom, all in vast quantities. Gore Vidal boredomignorancemay I have been saying for the some time now that America has only one party - the property party. It's the party of big corporation, the party of money. It has two right wings; one is Democrat and the other is Republican. Gore Vidal partywingstwo If Henry Miller often sounded like a village idiot, it is because, like Whitman, he was the rest of the village as well. Gore Vidal village-idiotswellsifs To a man, ornithologists are tall, slender, and bearded so that they can stand motionless for hours, imitating kindly trees, as they watch for birds. Gore Vidal treebirdmen I'm all for bringing back the birch, but only between consenting adults. Gore Vidal adultswittysex It is the spirit of the age to believe that any fact, no matter how suspect, is superior to any imaginative exercise, no matter how true. Gore Vidal exercisebirthdaybelieve The constitution has broken down. We have no enemies except the ones we select and direct towards the nearest nuclear bombs. They need an enemy to provoke, a diversion. This is the mentality of tenth-rate people who are in politics because corporate America likes them. They are malleable. They give them contracts to build missile shields that will never work. It's deeply corrupt. Gore Vidal governmentbrokenamerica Write something, even if it's just a suicide note. Gore Vidal notessuicidewriting What other culture could have produced someone like Hemmingway and not seen the joke? Gore Vidal other-culturesliteratureculture People in my situation get to read about themselves whether they want to or not. It's generally wrong. Or oversimplified - which is sometimes useful. Gore Vidal wantsometimespeople
