Gore Vidal Quotes

1925–2012 United States

Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (born Eugene Louis Vidal; (3 October 1925 – 31 July 2012), was an American writer of novels, essays, screenplays, and stage plays.

United States
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Also known as: Vidal, Gore

Random Gore Vidal quote

117 quotes

Constantinople has no past; only a noisy present and a splendid future, if the auguries are to be believed.

Julian (1964)

We must always remember that the police are recruited from the criminal classes.

Vengeance must end somewhere, and what better place to stop than at the prince?

Julian (1964)

The more money an American accumulates the less interesting he himself becomes.

Homage to Daniel Shays : Collected Essays (1972)

Class is the most difficult subject for American writers to deal with as it is the most difficult for the English to avoid.

At Home (1988)

Traitors who prevail are patriots; usurpers who succeed are divine emperors.

Julian (1964)

Apparently, "conspiracy stuff" is now shorthand for unspeakable truth.

Modern Christianity is a encyclopedia of traditional superstition.

Julian (1964)

There is no terror equal that of the ignorant in a strange place.

Julian (1964)

As one gets older, litigation replaces sex.

Precocious talents mature slowly if at all.

The Second American Revolution (1983)

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.

In any case, write what you know will always be excellent advice to those who ought not to write at all.

The Second American Revolution (1983)

Television is a great leveler. You always end up sounding like the people who ask the questions.

The Second American Revolution (1983)

Men are odd. If they cannot be first, they don't in the least mind being last.

Julian (1964)

How marvelous books are, crossing worlds and centuries, defeating ignorance and, finally, cruel time itself.

Julian (1964)

We are all so simple at heart that we become unfathomable to one another.

Julian (1964)

It is the spirit of the age to believe that any fact, however suspect, is superior to any imaginative exercise, no matter how true.

The period of Prohibition — called the noble experiment — brought on the greatest breakdown of law and order the United States has known until today. I think there is a lesson here.

Matters of Fact and Fiction : Essays 1973–1976 (1978)

Think of the earth as a living organism that is being attacked by billions of bacteria whose numbers double every forty years. Either the host dies, or the virus dies, or both die.

A View from the Diner's Club (1991)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Gore Vidal (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.