I could be a lot happier. I could be the senator from Aerospace taking bribes, and be quite happy.
GORE VIDALOf all recent presidents, Clinton was expected to behave the most sensibly in economic matters. He understood how the economy works. But because he had used various dodges to stay out of the Vietnam War, he came to office ill at ease with the military.
More Gore Vidal Quotes
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By the time a man gets to be presidential material, he’s been bought ten times over.
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I never said I was gay, because I don’t think anyone is.
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Baseball is the favorite American sport because it’s so slow. Any idiot can follow it. And just about any idiot can play it.
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What I like least about myself is my belligerence.
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That loyal retainer of the Chase Manhattan Bank, the American president.
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I am a novelist turned temporary adventurer, and I chose to write television, movies and plays for much the same reason that Henry Morgan selected the Spanish Main for his peculiar – and not dissimilar – sphere of operations.
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That is sad until one recalls how many bad books the world may yet be spared because of the busyness of writers.
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It’s odd to meet a rather elderly man who says, ‘I’ve been reading you all my life.’ It makes you feel a slight chill.
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Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.
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By the end of World War II, we were the most powerful and least damaged of the great nations. We also had most of the money. America’s hegemony lasted exactly five years.
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I think I have a normal threshold of anger, but it’s true that I am, by nature, belligerent.
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We are pleased to dismiss politics as entirely corrupt, if not financially, intellectually.
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I was the most famous kid in the United States. That was 1936.
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Some writers take to drink, others take to audiences.
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A friend was surprised to hear me say that there was not one moment of my past that I would like to relive.
GORE VIDAL