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Gore Vidal Quotes about Art

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There's no such thing as a war against terrorism. It's idiotic. These are slogans. These are lies. It's advertising, which is the only art form we ever invented and developed.

There's no such thing as a war against terrorism. It's idiotic. These are slogans. These are lies. It's advertising, which is the only art form we ever invented and developed.

Gore Vidal
Art, Lying, War
"Gore Vidal on the Media and the American People". Interview with David Barsamian, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. August 1, 2012.

The creation of a work of art, like an act of love, is our one small 'yes' at the center of a vast 'no.'

Gore Vidal
Art, Love Is, Creation
Gore Vidal (1968). “Sex, Death, and Money”

In a nation that has developed to a high art advertising, the creator who refuses to advertise himself is immediately suspected of having no product worth selling.

Gore Vidal
Art, Advertising, Selling
Gore Vidal (1988). “At home: essays, 1982-1988”, Random House Inc

Art is not a democracy, in fact art is the enemy of democracy

Gore Vidal
Art, Enemy, Democracy

Constant work, constant writing and constant revision. The real writer learns nothing from life. He is more like an oyster or a sponge. What he takes in he takes in normally the way any person takes in experience. But it is what is done with it in his mind, if he is a real writer, that makes his art.

Gore Vidal
Art, Real, Writing

Ronald Reagan: a triumph of the embalmer's art.

Gore Vidal
Art, Triumph, Politics
Quoted in Observer, 26 Apr. 1981

I don't want anything. I don't want a job. I don't want to be respectable. I don't want prizes. I turned down the National Institute of Arts and Letters when I was elected to it in 1976 on the grounds that I already belonged to the Diners Club.

Gore Vidal
Art, Jobs, Diners

The malady of civilized man is his knowledge of death. The good artist, like the wise man, addresses himself to life and invests with his private vision the deeds and thoughts of men. The creation of a work of art, like an act of love, is our one small 'yes' at the center of a vast 'no'.

Gore Vidal
Wise, Art, Love Is
Gore Vidal (2007). “Selected Essays”, Abacus Software

Truman Capote has made lying an art. A minor art.

Gore Vidal
Art, Lying, Truman
"Can They Stand the Heat?The Art of the Insult" by Mary Blume, International Herald Tribune, www.nytimes.com. January 3, 1998.

For half a century photography has been the "art form" of the untalented. Obviously some pictures are more satisfactory than others, but where is credit due? To the designer of the camera? to the finger on the button? to the law of averages?

Gore Vidal
Photography, Art, Law
Gore Vidal (1982). “The second American revolution and other essays (1976-1982)”, Random House Inc

Writers who teach tend to prefer literary theory to literature and tenure to all else. Writers who do not teach prefer the contemplation of Careers to art of any kind.

Gore Vidal
Art, Writing, Literary Theory
Gore Vidal (1991). “A view from the diners club: essays 1987-1991”

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