Works
Famous Gore Vidal Quotes
Source: 1990s, Screening History (1992), Ch. 1: The Prince and the Pauper, p. 24
Context: Apparently, a concern for others is self-love at its least attractive, while greed is now a sign of the higher altruism. But then to reverse, periodically, the meanings of words is a very small price to pay for the freedom not only to conform but to consume.
Quoted in Gert Jonkers, "Gore Vidal, the Fantastic Man," Butt, No. 20 (7 April 2007)
2000s
“Traitors who prevail are patriots; usurpers who succeed are divine emperors.”
Source: 1960s, Julian (1964), Chapter 13, Helena
Gore Vidal Quotes about people
Source: 1970s, Homage to Daniel Shays : Collected Essays (1972), Matters of Fact and Fiction : Essays 1973 - 1976 (1978), p. 280
“Half the American people never read a newspaper. Half never vote for President — the same half?”
Sometimes quoted as: Half of the American people never read a newspaper. Half never voted for president. One hopes it is the same half.
[Bill, Maxwell, http://www.sptimes.com/2002/07/07/Columns/In_gloomy_times__let_.shtml, In gloomy times, let's try to find a sense of humor, St. Petersberg Times, 2002-07-07, 2008-10-04]
Variant: Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.
Source: 1990s, Screening History (1992), Ch. 1: The Prince and the Pauper, p. 5
On the religious right in America http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=342
2000s, What I've Learned (2008), Gore Vidal's America (2009)
"Writing Plays for Television" in New World Writing, #10 (1956)
1970s, Homage to Daniel Shays : Collected Essays (1972)
On the American South's switch from Democrat to Republican http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=342
2000s, What I've Learned (2008), Gore Vidal's America (2009)
Gore Vidal: Trending quotes
Source: 1960s, Julian (1964), Chapter 1, Libanius to Priscus, Antioch March 380
“Nothing human is finally calculable; even to ourselves we are strange.”
Source: 1960s, Julian (1964), Chapter 4
Context: They say to know oneself is to know all there is that is human. But of course no one can ever know himself. Nothing human is finally calculable; even to ourselves we are strange.
Gore Vidal Quotes
“Private lives should be no business of the State. The State is bad enough as it is.”
Quoted in Gert Jonkers, "Gore Vidal, the Fantastic Man," http://www.buttmagazine.com/?p=457 Butt, No. 20 (7 April 2007)
2000s
Context: Private lives should be no business of the State. The State is bad enough as it is. It cannot educate or medicate or feed the people; it cannot do anything but kill the people. No State like that do we want prying into our private lives.
“It is notable how little empathy is cultivated or valued in our society.”
Source: 1990s, Screening History (1992), Ch. 2: Fire Over England, p. 49
Context: It is notable how little empathy is cultivated or valued in our society. I put this down to our traditional racism and obsessive sectarianism. Even so, one would think that we would be encouraged to project ourselves into the character of someone of a different race or class, if only to be able to control him. But no effort is made.
“It is reasonable to assume that, by and large, what is not read now will not be read, ever.”
"Thomas Love Peacock: The Novel of Ideas" (1980)
1980s, The Second American Revolution (1983)
Context: It is reasonable to assume that, by and large, what is not read now will not be read, ever. It is also reasonable to assume that practically nothing that is read now will be read later. Finally, it is not too farfetched to imagine a future in which novels are not read at all.
“History is nothing but gossip about the past, with the hope that it might be true.”
Quoted in Gert Jonkers, "Gore Vidal, the Fantastic Man," Butt, No. 20 (7 April 2007)
2000s
Context: Everybody likes a bit of gossip to some point, as long as it’s gossip with some point to it. That’s why I like history. History is nothing but gossip about the past, with the hope that it might be true.
"The State of the Union" (1975)
1970s, Homage to Daniel Shays : Collected Essays (1972), Matters of Fact and Fiction : Essays 1973 - 1976 (1978)
Context: The period of Prohibition — called the noble experiment — brought on the greatest breakdown of law and order the United States has known until today. I think there is a lesson here. Do not regulate the private morals of people. Do not tell them what they can take or not take. Because if you do, they will become angry and antisocial and they will get what they want from criminals who are able to work in perfect freedom because they have paid off the police.
"Gore Vidal and the Mind of the Terrorist" http://www.abc.net.au/arts/books/stories/s432193.htm, interview by Ramona Koval, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio National (November 2001)
2000s
Context: We should stop going around babbling about how we're the greatest democracy on earth, when we're not even a democracy. We are a sort of militarised republic. The founding fathers hated two things, one was monarchy and the other was democracy, they gave us a constitution that saw to it we will have neither. I don't know how wise they were.
1990s, The Decline and Fall of the American Empire (1992)
Context: Every four years the naive half who vote are encouraged to believe that if we can elect a really nice man or woman President everything will be all right. But it won't be. Any individual who is able to raise $25 million to be considered presidential is not going to be much use to the people at large. He will represent oil, or aerospace, or banking, or whatever moneyed entities are paying for him. Certainly he will never represent the people of the country, and they know it. Hence, the sense of despair throughout the land as incomes fall, businesses fail and there is no redress.
“Big oil, big steel, big agriculture avoid the open marketplace.”
"The State of the Union" (1978)
1970s, Homage to Daniel Shays : Collected Essays (1972), Matters of Fact and Fiction : Essays 1973 - 1976 (1978)
Context: Big oil, big steel, big agriculture avoid the open marketplace. Big corporations fix prices among themselves and thus drive out of business the small entrepreneur. Also, in their conglomerate form, the huge corporations have begun to challenge the very legitimacy of the state.
Quoted in the documentary The U.S. vs John Lennon (2006) — video excerpt at The Huffington Post (12 September 2006) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/09/12/video-john-lennon-was-_n_29293.html
2000s
Context: Lennon was somebody who was a born enemy of those who govern the United States. He was everything they hated. So I just say that he represented life, and is admirable; and Mr. Nixon and Mr. Bush represent death, and that is a bad thing.
"Growing Up With Gore Vidal," Screening History (1994), p. 24.
1990s
Context: A current pejorative adjective is narcissistic. Generally, a narcissist is anyone better looking than you are, but lately the adjective is often applied to those “liberals” who prefer to improve the lives of others rather than exploit them. Apparently, a concern for others is self-love at its least attractive, while greed is now a sign of the highest altruism. But then to reverse, periodically, the meanings of words is a very small price to pay for our vast freedom not only to conform but to consume.
“Every time a friend succeeds, I die a little.”
Quoted in The Sunday Times Magazine, London (16 September 1973).
1970s
Variant: Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies.
“It is not enough merely to win; others must lose.”
Quoted by Gerard Irvine, "Antipanegyric for Tom Driberg," [memorial service for Driberg] (8 December 1976)
1970s
Variant: It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.
“Monotheism is easily the greatest disaster to befall the human race.”
Appendix
1980s, At Home (1988)
Context: I regard monotheism as the greatest disaster ever to befall the human race. I see no good in Judaism, Christianity, or Islam — good people, yes, but any religion based on a single... well, frenzied and virulent god, is not as useful to the human race as, say, Confucianism, which is not a religion but an ethical and educational system that has worked pretty well for twenty-five hundred years. So you see I am ecumenical in my dislike for the Book. But like it or not, the Book is there; and because of it people die; and the world is in danger.
“A narcissist is someone better looking than you are.”
Quoted in "Vidal: 'I'm at the Top of a Very Tiny Heap,'" profile by Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times (12 March 1981), Late City Final Edition, Section C, Page 17, Column 1.
1980s
"Thomas Love Peacock: The Novel of Ideas" (1980)
1980s, The Second American Revolution (1983)
Variant: In any case, write what you know will always be excellent advice to those who ought not to write at all.
Source: The Essential Gore Vidal
Quoted in The Observer (7 February 1982)
1980s
“a writer must always tell the truth (unless he's a journalist)”
Source: The American Presidency
“I suspect that one of the reasons we create fiction is to make sex exciting.”
"Oscar Wilde: On the Skids Again" (1987)
1980s, At Home (1988)
“Never have children, only grandchildren.”
This was said by Vidal's maternal grandfather, Thomas Pryor Gore, as recalled by Vidal: "My grandfather, Senator Gore ('I never give advice') was suddenly Polonius; he also changed his usual line from 'Never have children, only grandchildren' to 'Be not fruitful, do not multiply.' " [Palimpsest, ch. 3: The Desire and the Successful Pursuit of the Whole]
Misattributed
"William Dean Howells" (1983)
1980s, At Home (1988)
“First coffee, then a bowel movement. Then the Muse joins me.”
"Gore Vidal," interview by Gerald Clarke (1974), The Paris Review Interviews: Writers at Work, 5th series (1981)
1970s
"Lincoln and the Priests of Academe"
1990s, United States - Essays 1952-1992 (1992)
Source: 1990s, Screening History (1992), Ch. 2: Fire Over England, p. 34
“The more money an American accumulates the less interesting he himself becomes.”
"H. Hughes," The New York Review of Books (20 April 1972)
1970s, Homage to Daniel Shays : Collected Essays (1972)
2010s, "Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia" (2013)
“Well, the Constitution has not yet been pregnant.”
As quoted in "Jah" http://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=CB6SOQCvoIM (15 August 2004), Da Ali G Show
2000s
"The State of the Union," The Nation (13 September 2004)
2000s
“In a good cause hypocrisy becomes a virtue.”
Source: 1960s, Julian (1964), Chapter 1, Priscus to Libanius, Antioch June 380
