What is there to say, finally, except that pain is bad and pleasure good, life all, death nothing. Gore Vidal More Quotes by Gore Vidal More Quotes From Gore Vidal Writing fiction has become a priestly business in countries that have lost their faith. Gore Vidal businesswritingcountry History is idle gossip about a happening whose truth is lost the instant it has taken place. Gore Vidal gossiptruth-istaken Everybody likes a bit of gossip to some point, as long as it's gossip with some point to it. That's why I like history. History is nothing but gossip about the past, with the hope that it might be true. Gore Vidal gossiplongpast Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies. Gore Vidal successfriendshiplife Southerners make good novelists: they have so many stories because they have so much family. Gore Vidal southernernovelistsstories Love is a fan club with only two fans. Gore Vidal fanslove-istwo The most interesting thing about writing is the way that it obliterates time. Three hours seem like three minutes. Gore Vidal threewritinginteresting Never have children, only grandchildren. Gore Vidal humorouskidschildren In America, the race goes to the loud, the solemn, the hustler. If you think you're a great writer, you must say that you are. Gore Vidal raceamericathinking Andy Warhol is the only genius I've ever known with an IQ of 60. Gore Vidal warholgeniusliterature I wanted to be a politician and a movie star. But I was born a writer. If you're born that, you can't change it. You're going to do it whether you want to or not.~ Gore Vidal starswantwriting Christianity is such a silly religion. Gore Vidal atheismsillyreligion I am an obsessive rewriter, doing one draft and then another and another, usually five. In a way, I have nothing to say, but a great deal to add. Gore Vidal dealsaddway By the time a man gets to be presidential material, he's been bought ten times over. Gore Vidal presidentialpoliticalmen Constant work, constant writing and constant revision. The real writer learns nothing from life. He is more like an oyster or a sponge. What he takes in he takes in normally the way any person takes in experience. But it is what is done with it in his mind, if he is a real writer, that makes his art. Gore Vidal realwritingart In writing and politicking, it's best not to think about it, just do it. Gore Vidal just-do-itwritingthinking I never reread a text until I have finished the first draft. Otherwise it's too discouraging. Gore Vidal discouragingfinishedfirsts As Brooks Adams put it, the sole problem of our ruling class is whether to coerce or to bribe the powerless majority. Gore Vidal majorityproblemclass Big oil, big steel, big agriculture avoid the open marketplace. Big corporations fix prices among themselves and thus drive out of business the small entrepreneur. Also, in their conglomerate form, the huge corporations have begun to challenge the very legitimacy of the state. Gore Vidal agricultureoilentrepreneur I said, well, it's a very primitive country, the United States, and it's full of superstitions, which come out of a very fundamental religious bias, which is primitive Christianity. Gore Vidal united-statesreligiouscountry
