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
sex class british
The British are absolutely hung up on class, and whenever they start to really - class for the English is like sex for Americans: They start to shake all over when the subject comes up.
self concern-for-others greed
A current pejorative adjective is narcissistic. Generally, a narcissist is anyone better looking than you are, but lately the adective 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 hightest 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.
ideas ironic conspiracy
It is ironic that a nation that has never experienced a coup d'etat should be so obsessed with the idea of conspiracy.
ordinary hills capitol-hill
I came out of Capitol Hill. Well, that's just not an ordinary background for a writer of the ordinary American sort.
vices explanation
The American vice is explanation.
children class doctors
Most writers are middle-class and are the children of doctors or lawyers.
space astronomy astronaut
Astronauts: rotarians in outer space.
weed flower criticism
Despite the warnings of other times, the impetuous and the confident continue their indiscriminate cultivation of weeds at the expense of occasional flowers.
enemy curious
It is curious how often one prefers his enemies to his friends.
writing two force
These are two opposing forces, and whenever I am in active politics, I stop writing. And when I'm writing, I don't politick.
educational media average
You cannot get through the density of the propaganda with which the American people, through the dreaded media, have been filled and the horrible public educational system we have for the average person. It's just grotesque.
abandonment attainment absolutes
The only absolute attainment is absolute abandonment.
sex blood tyrants
Whether you have an abortion, what you put in your own body, with whom you have sex - these are not the affairs of the state. A government does not exist to control the citizens. When it does, it is a tyranny, and must be fought. The tree of liberty, Jefferson warned us, must be refreshed with the blood of tyrants and patriots.
lonely children book
Lonely children often have imaginary playmates but I was never lonely; rather, I was solitary, and wanted no company at all other than books and movies, and my own imagination.