Gore Vidal Quotes

Most popular Gore Vidal Quotes

A good deed never goes unpunished. - Gore Vidal quote.
A good deed never goes unpunished.
— Gore Vidal

charity

Litigation takes the place of sex at middle age. - Gore Vidal quote.
Litigation takes the place of sex at middle age.
— Gore Vidal

middle age

A narcissist is someone better looking than you are. - Gore Vidal quote.
A narcissist is someone better looking than you are.
— Gore Vidal San Francisco Chronicle

narcissist

At full strength, wit is rage made bearable, and useful. - Gore Vidal quote.
At full strength, wit is rage made bearable, and useful.
— Gore Vidal

wit

I never miss a chance to have sex or appear on television. - Gore Vidal quote.
I never miss a chance to have sex or appear on television.
— Gore Vidal
Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies. - Gore Vidal quote.
Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies.
— Gore Vidal Sunday Times Magazine

success jealousy competition

There is something about a bureaucrat that doesn't like a poem. - Gore Vidal quote.
There is something about a bureaucrat that doesn't like a poem.
— Gore Vidal Sex, Death, and Money

bureaucracy

For certain people after fifty, litigation takes the place of sex. - Gore Vidal quote.
For certain people after fifty, litigation takes the place of sex.
— Gore Vidal

courts

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

style

Writing fiction has become a priestly business in countries that have lost their faith. - Gore Vidal quote.
Writing fiction has become a priestly business in countries that have lost their faith.
— Gore Vidal The Independent

fiction

Before the cards that one is dealt by life are the cards that fate has dealt.  One's family. - Gore Vidal quote.
Before the cards that one is dealt by life are the cards that fate has dealt.  One's family.
— Gore Vidal Palimpsest: A Memoir

family

Is there another word in the English language quite so useful, so hopeful, so truly pregnant as "yet"? - Gore Vidal quote.
Is there another word in the English language quite so useful, so hopeful, so truly pregnant as "yet"?
— Gore Vidal Sex, Death, and Money
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 quote.
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 Rocking the Boat

art

As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action. - Gore Vidal quote.
As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action.
— Gore Vidal The Decline and Fall of the American Empire

language

A satirist is a man profoundly revolted by the society in which he lives. His rage takes the form of wit, ridicule, mockery. - Gore Vidal quote.
A satirist is a man profoundly revolted by the society in which he lives. His rage takes the form of wit, ridicule, mockery.
— Gore Vidal

satire

I am an obsessive rewriter, doing one draft and then another and another, usually five. In a way, I have nothing to say, but a great deal to add. - Gore Vidal quote.
I am an obsessive rewriter, doing one draft and then another and another, usually five. In a way, I have nothing to say, but a great deal to add.
— Gore Vidal

funny writing

I suspect that our own faith in psychiatry will seem as touchingly quaint to the future as our grandparents' belief in phrenology seems now to us. - Gore Vidal quote.
I suspect that our own faith in psychiatry will seem as touchingly quaint to the future as our grandparents' belief in phrenology seems now to us.
— Gore Vidal Reflections Upon a Sinking Ship

psychiatrist

To a man, ornithologists are tall, slender, and bearded so that they can stand motionless for hours, imitating kindly trees, as they watch for birds. - Gore Vidal quote.
To a man, ornithologists are tall, slender, and bearded so that they can stand motionless for hours, imitating kindly trees, as they watch for birds.
— Gore Vidal Armageddon? Essays 1983–1987

birds

Altruism is a brief phase through which some adolescents must pass. It is rather like acne. Happily, as with acne, only a few are permanently scarred. - Gore Vidal quote.
Altruism is a brief phase through which some adolescents must pass. It is rather like acne. Happily, as with acne, only a few are permanently scarred.
— Gore Vidal Point to Point Navigation

altruism

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. - Gore Vidal quote.
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.
— Gore Vidal The Nation

asking questions

Our time's first satirist is Evelyn Waugh.  For thirty years his savagery and wit have given pleasure and alarm.  His mixed dish is . . . all set down in a prose so chaste that at times one longs for a violation of syntax to suggest that its creator is fallible, or at least part American. - Gore Vidal quote.
Our time's first satirist is Evelyn Waugh.  For thirty years his savagery and wit have given pleasure and alarm.  His mixed dish is . . . all set down in a prose so chaste that at times one longs for a violation of syntax to suggest that its creator is fallible, or at least part American.