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Gore Vidal Quotes - Page 18

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

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

Choices, Matter, Born

Source: www.achievement.org

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

Writing, Two, Force

"Fresh Air Remembers Writer And Critic Gore Vidal". www.npr.org. August 2, 2012.

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

Class, Difficult, Deals

Gore Vidal (1991). “A view from the diners club: essays 1987-1991”

[ New York ] is a place that worships incompetence particularly if it's combined with energy and paranoid self-confidence. Only in a city like New York could Truman Capote have made it, or John Simon.

New York, Self Confidence, Cities

Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

The Gores, I think, are a bit brighter than the Bushes, historically speaking.

Thinking, Gore, Brighter

"Fresh Air Remembers Writer And Critic Gore Vidal". www.npr.org. August 2, 2012.

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

New York, Writing, Worst

Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

We've had parallel lives. And frankly, I prefer mine to his. I would not like to be George Bush.

Parallel Lives, Mines, Parallels

Do nothing that is not natural - and ritual is natural - and all will be for the best.

Natural, Ritual

Gore Vidal (2002). “Creation: a novel”, Doubleday Books

If the splitter of hairs has a sharp enough knife, the fact of life itself can be chopped into nothing.

Hair, Knives, Facts

Gore Vidal (2002). “Creation: a novel”, Doubleday Books

I look into my own black heart.

Heart, Black, Looks

Never have varmints, only grandvarmints.

The Americans are clever. They thoroughly understand things that have to do with money, war, death, sickness. And there is also a real tradition of skepticism in this country.

Country, Clever, Real

"The End of Gore Vidal". Interview with Lila Azam Zanganeh, www.guernicamag.com. August 15, 2012.

Writing when you are already very old means you have lived through the endings of so many things, you are more aware of the shape life takes. You begin to know Death, you've been close to it. But youth can barely imagine the end of this journey.

Writing, Mean, Journey

"The End of Gore Vidal". Interview with Lila Azam Zanganeh, www.guernicamag.com. August 15, 2012.

There was more of a flow to my output of writing in the past, certainly. Having no contemporaries left means you cannot say, "Well, so-and-so will like this," which you do when you're younger. You realize there is no so-and-so anymore. You are your own so-and-so. There is a bleak side to it.

Writing, Mean, Past

"Gore Vidal: What I've Learned". Interview with Mike Sager, www.esquire.com. August 1, 2012.

Movie acting, I later realized, reminds me of contract bridge. Each requires the same concentration, intense short-term memory, and obliviousness to everything else until the last trump is called - or whatever it is they do.

Memories, Bridges, Acting

Source: articles.latimes.com

Americans worship the Constitution but do not observe it.

Constitution, Worship

I don't seem to be cynical to myself but how what I say goes down with others is their problem. I'm realistic.

Cynical, Problem, Realistic

Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

I'm a much worse guest than I am a host, and I'm not an awfully good host either. I really like being alone.

Like Being Alone, Guests, Host

Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

Everybody is bisexual, and that is a fact of human nature. Some people practice both, and some practice one thing, and some people practice another thing and that is the way human beings are.

Bisexual, Practice, People

Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

Everybody has two legs, two lobes to the brain which is why we tend to be interested in symmetry, always balancing things.

Two, Brain, Legs

Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

Before the word gay had really been invented, was there's no such thing. Only a country, basically as mindless about these matters - based upon our peasant superstitions, religious superstitions - would they make categories. Everybody's everything.

Country, Religious, Gay

"Fresh Air Remembers Writer And Critic Gore Vidal". www.npr.org. August 2, 2012.

Nixon was a Southern Rim President, and so antipathetic to the old guard.

Southern, President, Rims

Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

Everything's wrong on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia

"Gore Vidal: What I've Learned". Interview with Mike Sager, www.esquire.com. August 1, 2012.

I went to Europe to live in 1961. I'd never have written Julian if it hadn't been for the sequestered life that I led in Rome and the classical library at the America Academy.

Rome, Europe, America

Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

I'd still like to be the President, of course, and I think the best way to do that would be to raise an army and seize the Capital. This strikes me as true democracy.

Army, Thinking, Democracy

Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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