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Books Quote by Gore Vidal

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““…the American reader cannot bear a surprise. He knows that this is the greatest country on earth…and evidence to the contrary is not admissible. That means no inconvenient facts, no new information. If you really want the reader’s attention, you must flatter him. Make his prejudices your own. Tell him things he already knows. He will love your soundness.””

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More by Gore Vidal

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…

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Many people in the United States happen to believe that United States policy is wrong in Vietnam and the Vietcong are correct in wanting…

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“It is curious how little interested we are in the sexual desires of those who do not attract us.”

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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…

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Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.

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The oligarchs think that the people are both dangerous and stupid. Their point is moot. But we do know that the oligarchs are a…

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It is curious how often one prefers his enemies to his friends.

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As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying…

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Rome ... at its most decadent, had never thought of hiring an actor to go through the motions of being an emperor while the…

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History is nothing but gossip about the past, with the hope that it might be true.

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The malady of civilized man is his knowledge of death. The good artist, like the wise man, addresses himself to life and invests with…

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Sex is a continuum. You go through different phases along life's way... and if you don't, you've been sort of cheated.

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Explore all 539 Gore Vidal quotes

More Books quotes

I think a new world will arise out of the religious mists when we approach our Bible with the idea that it is not…

Aiden Wilson Tozer

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If I had a dollar for every time I couldn’t sleep, I could buy a billion locks and finally read a book in peace.

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If what I write is literature, I guess you'd better emphasize the 'litter.'

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My sentences got sharper and my stories more efficient, and I gradually learned to imagine the reader more clearly and to empathize with that…

Karen Thompson Walker

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Young men, especially in America, write to me and ask me to recommend “a course of reading.” Distrust a course of reading! People who…

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“Within the pages of books, I've journeyed to Mandalay, the Milky Way and Santa Fe, without once having to leave my armchair.”

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The Rosary is the book of the blind.

Fulton J. Sheen

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“Tacitus did not write a most dangerous book. His readers made it so.”

Christopher K. Krebs

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“Take some books and read; that’s an immense help; and books are always good company if you have the right sort.”

Louisa May Alcott

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Reader, if you are gifted with nerves like mine, aspire to any character but that of a wit.

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I have many who keep me going, I am very fortunate in this sense. There is nothing like a child who knows more about…

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I think books in which people are really happy and things are going well are probably the most challenging novels there are to write,…

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