Ideally, the writer needs no audience other than the few who understand that it is immodest and greedy to want more. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
“In general, [. . .] novel-theorists have nothing very urgent or interesting to say about literature. Why then do they write when… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Constant work, constant writing and constant revision. The real writer learns nothing from life. He is more like an oyster or a… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
If you are at the mercy of what they call print interviews and the mercy of people who write about you, they… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
The first TV babies are now writing with a TV mind that has no attention span at all. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
“To turn life into words is to make life yours to do with as you please, instead of the other way round” — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
I came out of Capitol Hill. Well, that's just not an ordinary background for a writer of the ordinary American sort. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Writing of history is our only heuristic principle. The Germans have a word for it, einfühlen. It is the ability to experience… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Freud did some serious damage to American literature - a lot of writers began therapy in the 1940s, after which they all… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Most writers write books that they wouldn't read. I ought to know; I've done it myself. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
I write in different styles because I hear different voices in my head. It would be boring to have always the same… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
I have never been particularly impressed by the self centered musings of my fellow writers. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
When you come from a family that has been political, and I was brought up by my grandfather in the Senate, my… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
In America, the race goes to the loud, the solemn, the hustler. If you think you're a great writer, you must say… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
These little books I write, such as The End of Freedom, about the post-9/11 political climate in the United States, sell in… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
I’ve always said, ‘I have nothing to say, only to add.’ And it’s with each addition that the writing gets done. The… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
I don't think contemporary writers spend a lot of time reading each other. Particularly writers of the same nationality. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
I have no television to go on so I get a lot of writing done. That's my substitute for television. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
The most interesting thing about writing is the way that it obliterates time. Three hours seem like three minutes. Then there is… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
The Americans only like things they can label, even if it kills them. Think of those poor Latin American writers. Some of… — 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
