Gore Vidal 1925 -2012
Gore Vidal, the American writer and commentator has died aged 86. Smart as a whip and often sharp tongued against those of whom he was critical (most notably Regan and the Republican party) many a memorable quote. Here are some of our favourites.
Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so.
As the age of television progresses the Reagans will be the rule, not the exception. To be perfect for television is all a President has to be these days.
Democracy is supposed to give you the feeling of choice, like Painkiller X and Painkiller Y. But they’re both just aspirin.
Every time a friend succeeds, I die a little.
I never miss a chance to have sex or appear on television.
In America, the race goes to the loud, the solemn, the hustler. If you think you’re a great writer, you must say that you are.
It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.
Many writers who choose to be active in the world lose not virtue but time, and that stillness without which literature cannot be made.
Never have children, only grandchildren.
Sex is. There is nothing more to be done about it. Sex builds no roads, writes no novels and sex certainly gives no meaning to anything in life but itself.
Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.
There is no such thing as a homosexual or a heterosexual person. There are only homo- or heterosexual acts. Most people are a mixture of impulses if not practices.
Think of the earth as a living organism that is being attacked by billions of bacteria whose numbers double every forty years. Either the host dies, or the virus dies, or both die.
Until the rise of American advertising, it never occurred to anyone anywhere in the world that the teenager was a captive in a hostile world of adults.
What other culture could have produced someone like Hemmingway and not seen the joke?
Write something, even if it’s just a suicide note.