Famous Gore Vidal Quotations

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"The more money an American accumulates, the less interesting he becomes."
by Gore Vidal
"The theater needs continual reminders that there is nothing more debasing than the work of those who do well what is not worth doing at all."
by Gore Vidal
"Today's public figures can no longer write their own speeches or books, and there is some evidence that they can't read them either."
by Gore Vidal
"Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates."
by Gore Vidal
"It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail."
by Gore Vidal
"Half of the American people never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half."
by Gore Vidal
"The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return."
by Gore Vidal
"A good deed never goes unpunished."
by Gore Vidal
"Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so."
by Gore Vidal
"Every time a friend succeeds, I die a little."
by Gore Vidal
"For certain people after fifty, litigation takes the place of sex."
by Gore Vidal
"For certain people after 50, litigation takes the place of sex."
by Gore Vidal
"Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half."
by Gore Vidal
"I can understand companionship. I can understand bought sex in the afternoon. I cannot understand the love affair."
by Gore Vidal
"I'm a born-again atheist."
by Gore Vidal
"In her last days, she resembled a spoiled pear."
by Gore Vidal (about Gertrude Stein)
"It is not enough to succeed; others must fail."
by Gore Vidal
"It's not enough to succeed. Others must fail."
by Gore Vidal
"Never have children, only grandchildren."
by Gore Vidal
"Of ex-President Eisenhower at the Republican convention of 1964 Reading a speech with his usual sense of discovery."
by Gore Vidal
"Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say and not giving a damn."
by Gore Vidal
"Teaching has ruined more American novelists than drink."
by Gore Vidal
"There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise."
by Gore Vidal
"Whenever a friend succeeds a little something in me dies."
by Gore Vidal
"There is something about a bureaucrat that does not like a poem."
by Gore Vidal
"If most men and women were forced to rely upon physical charm to attract lovers, their sexual lives would be not only meager but in a youth-worshiping country like America painfully brief."
by Gore Vidal
"Laughing at someone else is an excellent way of learning how to laugh at oneself; and questioning what seem to be the absurd beliefs of another group is a good way of recognizing the potential absurdity of many of one's own cherished beliefs."
by Gore Vidal
"Democracy is supposed to give you the feeling of choice, like Painkiller X and Painkiller Y. But they're both just aspirin."
by Gore Vidal
"The problem with most Americans is that they don't like any question that takes more than ten seconds to answer."
by Gore Vidal
"As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests"
by Gore Vidal
"The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western World. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity -- much less dissent."
by Gore Vidal
"Of course, it is possible for any citizen with time to spare, and a canny eye, to work out what is actually going on, but for the many there is not time, and the network news is the only news even though it may not be news at all but only a series of flashing fictions..."
by Gore Vidal
"Never miss a chance to have sex or appear on television."
by Gore Vidal
"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?"
by Gore Vidal
"Think of the earth as a living organism that is being attacked by billions of bacteria whose numbers double every forty years. Either the host dies, or the virus dies, or both die."
by Gore Vidal
"It is difficult to find a reputable American historian who will acknowledge the crude fact that a Franklin Roosevelt, say, wanted to be President merely to wield power, to be famed and to be feared. To learn this simple fact one must wade through a sea of"
by Gore Vidal
"I never miss a chance to have sex or appear on television."
by Gore Vidal
"There is no such thing as a homosexual or a heterosexual person. There are only homo -- or heterosexual acts. Most people are a mixture of impulses if not practices."
by Gore Vidal
"Sex is. There is nothing more to be done about it. Sex builds no roads, writes no novels and sex certainly gives no meaning to anything in life but itself."
by Gore Vidal
"All the other candidates are making speeches about how much they have done for their country, which is ridiculous. I haven't done anything yet, and I think it's just common sense to send me to Washington and make me do my share."
by Gore Vidal
"A talent for drama is not a talent for writing, but is an ability to articulate human relationships."
by Gore Vidal
"It makes no difference whom you vote for -- the two parties are really one party representing four percent of the people."
by Gore Vidal
"It is difficult to find a reputable American historian who will acknowledge the crude fact that a Franklin Roosevelt, say, wanted to be Presid..."
by Gore Vidal


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