Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal
Gore Vidalwas an American writerand a public intellectual known for his patrician manner, epigrammatic wit, and polished style of writing...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth3 October 1925
CityWest Point, NY
CountryUnited States of America
abandonment attainment absolutes
The only absolute attainment is absolute abandonment.
father advice secret
Some of my father's fellow West Pointers once asked him why I turned out so well, his secret in raising me. And he said, "I never gave him any advice, and he never asked for any." We agreed on nothing, but we never quarreled once.
cynicism realism
Realism has always been called cynicism.
thinking what-matters live-your-life
It is of no consequence to you what others think of you. What matters is what you think of them. That is how you live your life.
book writing done
Most writers write books that they wouldn't read. I ought to know; I've done it myself.
country war honor
Eisenhower managed to begin the Vietnam war by not following his normal instinct of staying out of mischief. In his memoirs, he tells us why we didn't honor the Geneva accords and hold elections in Vietnam: because some 80 percent of the country would have voted for Ho Chi Minh. This is very candid. The sort of thing one might have found in Stalin'smemoirs, had he not made ghosts even of ghosts.
communication years balzac
Between Malraux, Balzac, and Montaigne, I choose Montaigne. Montaigne will survive all the others, because the essay, meaning direct communication between the writer and his reader, will outlast the novel, by at least a thousand years.
men yellow white
Now the long-feared Asiatic colossus takes its turn as world leader, and we--the white race--have become the yellow man's burden.Let us hope that he will treat us more kindly than we treated him.
writing mean past
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 views voice
I write in different styles because I hear different voices in my head. It would be boring to have always the same voice, point of view.
done return tourists
The critics are like tourists who return from a trip saying they've "done" Machu Picchu: "Okay, we've done magical realism," so now we can throw it out.
wikipedia
Everything's wrong on Wikipedia.
heart black looks
I look into my own black heart.
flower believe care
I do not much care for nature, and believe that flowers belong in vases rather than loose and untidy on the ground.