Quotes from Gore Vidal

True history, said Hearst, with a smile that was, for once, almost charming, is the final fiction. I thought even you knew that.

You know what Mr. Bates called me?" Seward shook his head with wonder. "An unprincipled liar. And here I am one of the most heavily principled men in politics." Lincoln chuckled. In every way, making allowances for regional differences, Seward's humor was not unlike his own. "And since you're a smart man, Governor, you never actually lie. Smart men never have to.

If ever there was a people ripe for dictatorship it is the American people today. Should a homegrown Hitler appear, whose voice, amongst the public orders, would be raised against him in derision? Certainly no voice on television: 'Sorry, the guy has a lot of fans. Sure, we know he's bad news, but you can't hurt people's feelings. They buy soap, too.

Primarily, I am a prose writer with axes to grind, and the theatre is a good place to do the grinding in. I prefer comedy to 'serious' drama because I believe one can get the ax sharper on the comedic stone.

You can't break eggs without making an omelet, said Butler sententiously.

Each affair began as though the creation of the world was to be reenacted, and each usually ended in less time than it took the Old Testament Creator to put up the sky. (62)

Since a president can do wrong and since he can be named in debate, he is not an anointed king and so like any man is answerable to the law." John Marshall then summoned President Jefferson to Richmond

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

Poets were intended to live to the full the life of the senses.

A red face poked through the hole in the window and bellowed, "There they are, the Ã¢â'¬Â¦Ã¢â'¬Â We never heard just what we were, for Mr. Davis in a swift gesture raised his cane and cracked smartly the red face. "Out, you whoreson!" rang the voice of Tammany's one-time Grand Sachem. The red face was seen no more.

Now the war is over. Or is it? Can we afford to give up our – well, cozy unremitting war? Why not – ah, tye brilliance, the simplicity! – instead of shrinking, expand our phantom empire in Europe by popping everyone into NATO? No reason to have any particular enemy, though, who knows, if sufficiently goaded, Russia might again be persuaded to play Great Satan in our somewhat dusty chamber of horrors.

Colonel Burr sat wreathed in smoke from a long seegar.

No man ever knows when he is happy; he can only know when he was happy.

Tutti sono bisessuali, disse l'uomo dai capelli grigi. La società, il condizionamento precoce, la buona o la cattiva sorte - dipende da come ci è stato detto di considerarla - determinano il risultato. Nulla è 'giusto'. Solo la negazione dell'istinto è sbagliata.

Nelson Chase's dull face hung in the middle distance like a jack-a-lantern.

I think, sir, that a war, in the name of the Monroe Doctrine, will unite them to us.

She could not get enough of the sights and the sounds the rest of us take for granted. The Gingerbread Man on Broadway particularly intrigued her as he ran by, coat-tails streaming in the wind, pockets bulging with gingerbread, his only food. No one knows who he is or where he lives because he never speaks, just runs, eats gingerbread, sips water at the public pumps.

Emma took everything in stride. Whether this was a sign of intelligence or of perfect indifference, Caroline could not fathom.

Most young men, particularly attractive ones, have sexual relations with their own kind. I suppose this is news to those who believe in the two teams: straight, which is good and unalterable; queer, which is bad and unalterable unless it proves to be only a Preference, which must then, somehow, be reversed, if necessary by force.

In the end, only Washington's majestic presence kept the army together. He was also lucky in his British counterparts: mediocrities to a man. (One British observer noted, "Any general in the world other than General Howe would have beaten General Washington; and any general in the world other than General Washington would have beaten General Howe.")

Halleck smiled. "Good. So do I. But then I am an enemy of the people, and regard the ship of state like any other ship: for the captain to sail it safely he must never ever consult the crew. That is why I am for a king, any king, the more tyrannical the better.

But then Americans have always lived entirely in the present, and this generation is no different from mine except that now there is more of a past for them to ignore.

Mrs. Grant was the wife of a hero—a butcher-hero, of course, but still a hero to the stupid public.

When a friend succeeds a little something inside me dies.