Writing Quotes by Gore Vidal

Most writers are middle-class and are the children of doctors or lawyers.

— Gore Vidal

a writer must always tell the truth (unless he's a journalist)

— Gore Vidal

The real writer learns nothing from life. He is more like an oyster or a sponge.

— Gore Vidal

Each writer is born with a repertory company in his head.

— Gore Vidal

American writers want to be not good but great; and so are neither.

— Gore Vidal

In writing and politicking, it's best not to think about it, just do it.

— Gore Vidal

“This is not at all bad, except as prose.”

— Gore Vidal

I was born a writer. When that happens, you have no choice in the matter.

— Gore Vidal

I have no television to go on so I get a lot of writing done. That's my substitute for television.

— Gore Vidal

That is sad until one recalls how many bad books the world may yet be spared because of the busyness of writers.

— Gore Vidal

Writers who teach tend to prefer literary theory to literature and tenure to all else. Writers who do not teach prefer the…

— Gore Vidal

I have begun writing what I have said I'd never write, a memoir ("I am not my own subject," I used to…

— Gore Vidal

I wanted to be a politician and a movie star. But I was born a writer. If you're born that, you can't…

— Gore Vidal

These are two opposing forces, and whenever I am in active politics, I stop writing. And when I'm writing, I don't politick.

— Gore Vidal

The first TV babies are now writing with a TV mind that has no attention span at all.

— Gore Vidal

The New York Times is the worst in that hardly anybody can write English over there. Most of it reads like slight…

— Gore Vidal

You can't be both a writer and a politician, at least not a good writer. A writer must always tell the truth…

— Gore Vidal

Fortunately, our audiences are used to a kind of boredom in the theatre, and if the writer is skillful, he will flatter…

— Gore Vidal

When you come from a family that has been political, and I was brought up by my grandfather in the Senate, my…

— Gore Vidal

I am a born novelist, which does not happen all that often. There are people who try to write for a certain…

— Gore Vidal

Constant work, constant writing and constant revision. The real writer learns nothing from life. He is more like an oyster or a…

— Gore Vidal

You can't really succeed with a novel anyway; they're too big. It's like city planning. You can't plan a perfect city because…

— Gore Vidal

“Each writer is born with a repertory company in his head. Shakespeare has perhaps 20 players. … I have 10 or so,…

— Gore Vidal

Baum (Writer of THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ) was a true educator, and those who read his Oz books are often made…

— Gore Vidal

The Americans only like things they can label, even if it kills them. Think of those poor Latin American writers. Some of…

— Gore Vidal

The most interesting thing about writing is the way that it obliterates time. Three hours seem like three minutes. Then there is…

— Gore Vidal

That famous writer’s block is a myth as far as I’m concerned. I think bad writers must have a great difficulty writing.…

— Gore Vidal

“In general, [. . .] novel-theorists have nothing very urgent or interesting to say about literature. Why then do they write when…

— Gore Vidal

Some writers take to drink, others take to audiences.

— Gore Vidal

The brain that doesn't feed itself, eats itself.

— Gore Vidal

I suspect that one of the reasons we create fiction is to make sex exciting.

— Gore Vidal

Write what you think, what you imagine, what you suspect!

— Gore Vidal

Write something, even if it's just a suicide note.

— Gore Vidal

“To turn life into words is to make life yours to do with as you please, instead of the other way round”

— Gore Vidal

I write in the morning at a table, longhand on yellow legal pads, just like Nixon, when I’m doing fiction.

— Gore Vidal

Write what you know will always be excellent advice for those who ought not to write at all. Write what you think,…

— Gore Vidal

I sometimes think it is because they are so bad at expressing themselves verbally that writers take to pen and paper in…

— Gore Vidal

Freud did some serious damage to American literature - a lot of writers began therapy in the 1940s, after which they all…

— Gore Vidal

Many writers who choose to be active in the world lose not virtue but time, and that stillness without which literature cannot…

— Gore Vidal

A talent for drama is not a talent for writing, but is ability to articulate human relationships.

— Gore Vidal