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
happened impression rather settles
In character, as it were, the writer settles for an impression of what happened rather than creating the sense of the thing happening.
elderly life man meet odd rather slight
It's odd to meet a rather elderly man who says, 'I've been reading you all my life.' It makes you feel a slight chill.
bound continuing impatient might next point rather trait
Americans are future-minded to the point of obsession. We are impatient at living in the present. Tomorrow is bound to be better... next year, next century, always what might be rather than what is. This trait in us makes for 'progress;' it also makes for a continuing dissatisfaction.
aaron analyzing came george history life rather saw spend taking taught washington
I didn't mean to spend my life writing American history, which should have been taught in the schools, but I saw no alternative but to taking it on myself. I could think of a lot of cheerier things I'd rather be doing than analyzing George Washington and Aaron Burr. But it came to pass, that was my job, so I did it.
capital classical death hour offense speculate
In classical times, it was a capital offense to speculate upon the hour of a king's death or upon the identity of his successor.
ahead city pointed
That is New York. I pointed to the waterfront just ahead as if the city were mine.
based british colonial empire french maintained modern money paris power shifted three
After the French Revolution, the world money power shifted from Paris to London. For three generations, the British maintained an old-fashioned colonial empire, as well as a modern empire based on London's primacy in the money markets.
fervent foe hudson tap whether
I'm a fervent foe of water pollution, whether it is our own Hudson River or Philadelphia's tap water.
bodies national
In essence, Clinton's Anti-Terrorism Act would set up a national police force, over the long-dead bodies of the founders.
discovery manage obvious state
I like the way you always manage to state the obvious with a sense of real discovery.
american-novelist andy genius
Andy Warhol is the only genius I've ever known with an I.Q. of 60.
betrays night wedding
Each youth betrays considerable anxiety about the wedding night ahead.
next sam script worked
During the late '50s, I had worked on the script of Ben-Hur in an office next to that of the producer Sam Zimbalist.
cannot deprive happiness life pursuit somebody
You cannot deprive somebody of life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, because that is a right - constitutional right.