Gore Vidal Quotes

American - Novelist October 3, 1925 - July 31, 2012

At any given moment, public opinion is a chaos of superstition, misinformation and prejudice.

Moment, Chaos, Opinion, Prejudice, Any

Write something, even if it's just a suicide note.

Suicide, Just, Something, Write, Even

Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn. - Gore Vidal

Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.

Style, You, Damn, Want, Say, Giving

To preserve the human race, it is now necessary to reorganize society. To this end, an Authority must be created with the power to control human population, to redistribute food, to purify air, water, soil, to re-pattern the cities.

Water, Food, Power, Society, End, Race

Overcrowding in the cities is producing a collective madness in which irrational violence flourishes because man needs more space in which to be than the modern city allows.

Man, City, Violence, Space, Madness

Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates.

Politics, Great, Democracy, Place, Cost

Envy is the central fact of American life.

Life, Envy, American, Fact, Central

By 1939, the Depression was back. Unemployment was huge. Roosevelt didn't have any quick fix. Remember, the New Deal, Works Progress Administration, and Civilian Conservation Corps - all that happened years before. Roosevelt was riding a storm.

Depression, Storm, Riding, Progress, New

I'm exactly as I appear. There is no warm, lovable person inside. Beneath my cold exterior, once you break the ice, you find cold water.

Water, You, Person, Find, Cold, Warm

I could be a lot happier. I could be the senator from Aerospace taking bribes, and be quite happy.

Happy, Quite, Aerospace, Lot, Happier

Top 10
Gore Vidal
Quotes

I'm a fervent foe of water pollution, whether it is our own Hudson River or Philadelphia's tap water.

Water, River, Pollution, Own, Our, Foe

Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.

Politics, People, Never, Newspaper, Half

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.

World, Media, Opinion, Country, First

As for civil liberties, any one who is not vigilant may one day find himself living, if not in a police state, at least in a police city.

Day, City, Police, Find, One Day, Living

Fifty percent of people won't vote, and fifty percent don't read newspapers. I hope it's the same fifty percent.

Hope, Vote, People, Same, Percent, Fifty

Some writers take to drink, others take to audiences.

Drink, Others, Some, Take, Audiences

The unfed mind devours itself.

Many writers who choose to be active in the world lose not virtue but time, and that stillness without which literature cannot be made.

Time, World, Lose, Choose, Literature

No sooner does an American president take his oath of office than the speculation begins: Will he be reelected in four years' time? If not, who will succeed him? A member of his own party? The other party?

Time, Succeed, Party, Office, American

There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise.

People, Problem, Human, Simply, Would

On 16 September 1985, when the Commerce Department announced that the United States had become a debtor nation, the American Empire died.

Nation, American, Commerce, Become, Had

The first grown-up book that I read on my own was a nineteenth-century edition of 'Tales from Livy' that I'd found in my grandfather's library.

Library, Book, Grandfather, My Own, Own

Baseball is the favorite American sport because it's so slow. Any idiot can follow it. And just about any idiot can play it.

Baseball, Slow, Idiot, Play, American

Policemen are seldom tried for their crimes, or indeed, held responsible for what they do, which disturbs the peace and causes distress among the orderly.

Peace, Tried, Responsible, Distress

In actual fact, I have always been a conservative cross, borne sadly by liberal friends.

Friends, Always, Conservative, Fact

By the end of World War II, we were the most powerful and least damaged of the great nations. We also had most of the money. America's hegemony lasted exactly five years.

Great, War, Money, World, End, Powerful

Loading...

Load more quotes

Related Authors

Ernest Hemingway

H. P. Lovecraft

Chuck Palahniuk

Nathaniel Hawthorne

BrainyQuote

BrainyQuote Desktop

BrainyQuote Mobile

Site

Quote Of The Day

Social

BQ on Pinterest

BQ on Instagram

Apps

iPhone/iPad app

Quote Of The Day Feeds

Javascript and RSS feeds

WordPress plugin

Quote of the Day Email

About

Copyright © 2001 - 2019 BrainyQuote

Language: Español | Français

Please disable your ad blocker

OK