In writing and politicking, it's best not to think about it, just do it. Gore Vidal More Quotes by Gore Vidal More Quotes From Gore Vidal 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 admirablemaking-moneywant I'm not for real revolutions, because they always bring you the opposite of what you want. You very seldom get what you want if you have a violent revolution. Gore Vidal realoppositeswant Everybody is bisexual, and that is a fact of human nature. Some people practice both, and some practice one thing, and some people practice another thing and that is the way human beings are. Gore Vidal bisexualpracticepeople Poor John Simon - what a nightmare, to wake up in the morning and realize that you are John Simon. Gore Vidal nightmarewake-upmorning Since I ought to be arrogant, impressed with my social position, overwhelmed by my beauty, therefore I am. Actually I was never my own type so I completely missed my beauty all through my youth. I have no social position and I stay away from what is known as society as much as possible. But people like to re-invent you, according to cliché. Gore Vidal arrogantoverwhelmedpeople Memory is strange. Scientifically, it is not a mechanical means of repeating something. I can think a thousand times about when I broke my leg at the age of ten, but it is never the same thing which comes to mind when I think about it. My memory of this event has never been, in reality, anything except the memory of my last memory of that event. This is why I use the image of a palimpsest - something written over something partially erased - that is what memory is for me. It's not a film you play back in exactly the same way. It's like theater, with characters who appear from time to time. Gore Vidal charactermemoriesmean 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 writingbookpast I suppose my liking for Italy is partly atavism, my family are of the old Roman stock. They came from the Alps north of Venice. Gore Vidal alpsvenicemy-family The world came so close to self-destruction during my lifetime. I was serving in the American Army, in the Pacific, at the time they bombed Hiroshima and then Nagasaki, and I felt there something like a foretaste of the end of the world. Gore Vidal armyselfworld The Americans are clever. They thoroughly understand things that have to do with money, war, death, sickness. And there is also a real tradition of skepticism in this country. Gore Vidal realclevercountry Writing when you are already very old means you have lived through the endings of so many things, you are more aware of the shape life takes. You begin to know Death, you've been close to it. But youth can barely imagine the end of this journey. Gore Vidal journeywritingmean I'm in favor of sexual encounters. Gore Vidal encountersfavors I might become an ascetic, live in India. A little rice is about the best I can do now. Gore Vidal indialittlesmight The whole point to American journalism is what ought to be true is true. Gore Vidal being-trueoughtjournalism The word heterosexual is an adjective, the word homosexual is an adjective. They describe an activity. Of course there's a homosexual activity; of course there's a heterosexual activity. But there's no homosexual person. There's no heterosexual person. Everybody is everything. Gore Vidal homosexualadjectivespersons I am glad my life is coming to an end. To think that it might last another five hundred years, now that would be terrible, in my case. Gore Vidal would-beyearsthinking 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 stormprogressdepressionremember I think I have a normal threshold of anger, but it's true that I am, by nature, belligerent. Gore Vidal i-amthinkangernature You cannot deprive somebody of life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, because that is a right - constitutional right. Gore Vidal youlibertyhappinesslife Each youth betrays considerable anxiety about the wedding night ahead. Gore Vidal weddinganxietyyouthnight
