The New York Times is the worst in that hardly anybody can write English over there. Most of it reads like slight… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
A writer represents his family history. My grandfather was a senator and my father served in the Roosevelt administration. In other words,… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
A talent for drama is not a talent for writing, but is ability to articulate human relationships. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
In writing and politicking, it's best not to think about it, just do it. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Fortunately, our audiences are used to a kind of boredom in the theatre, and if the writer is skillful, he will flatter… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
There was more of a flow to my output of writing in the past, certainly. Having no contemporaries left means you cannot… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
What matters finally is not the world's judgment of oneself but one's own judgment of the world.... Any writer who lacks this… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
“Each writer is born with a repertory company in his head. Shakespeare has perhaps 20 players. … I have 10 or so,… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Many writers who choose to be active in the world lose not virtue but time, and that stillness without which literature cannot… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
I like the distance that Europe gives me. Also if I stayed in America I'd be a full-time politician and have no… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
'The Turner Diaries' is a racist daydream by a former physics teacher writing under the pseudonym Andrew Macdonald. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
I started to read my first book at about the age of six. I started to write a book simultaneously. Not to… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
That is sad until one recalls how many bad books the world may yet be spared because of the busyness of writers. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Writing when you are already very old means you have lived through the endings of so many things, you are more aware… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Write what you know will always be excellent advice for those who ought not to write at all. Write what you think,… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
I sometimes think it is because they are so bad at expressing themselves verbally that writers take to pen and paper in… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Sex was a great no-no for Americans, so that was obviously an attraction to the writers, and since sex is a great… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
You hear all this whining going on, 'Where are our great writers?' The thing I might feel doleful about is: 'Where are… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Baum (Writer of THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ) was a true educator, and those who read his Oz books are often made… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Writers who teach tend to prefer literary theory to literature and tenure to all else. Writers who do not teach prefer the… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Most writers are middle-class and are the children of doctors or lawyers. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party...and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat. Republicans are a bit… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Many people in the United States happen to believe that United States policy is wrong in Vietnam and the Vietcong are correct in wanting… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
“It is curious how little interested we are in the sexual desires of those who do not attract us.” — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
This separation was absolute in our original Republic. But the sky-godders do not give up easily. In the 1950s they actually got the phrase… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
The oligarchs think that the people are both dangerous and stupid. Their point is moot. But we do know that the oligarchs are a… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Rome ... at its most decadent, had never thought of hiring an actor to go through the motions of being an emperor while the… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
History is nothing but gossip about the past, with the hope that it might be true. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
The malady of civilized man is his knowledge of death. The good artist, like the wise man, addresses himself to life and invests with… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Sex is a continuum. You go through different phases along life's way... and if you don't, you've been sort of cheated. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
