I am told the Cheney-Bush team dislikes their junta being compared to the Nazis. If they ceased behaving like Nazis, no comparison would come to mind.
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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The behaviour of President Bush on 11 September certainly gives rise to not unnatural suspicions.
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American history has fallen more and more into the hands of academics.
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To a man, ornithologists are tall, slender, and bearded so that they can stand motionless for hours, imitating kindly trees, as they watch for birds.
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The United States was founded by the brightest people in the country – and we haven’t seen them since.
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Never have children, only grandchildren.
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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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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.
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On 16 September 1985, when the Commerce Department announced that the United States had become a debtor nation, the American Empire died.
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My father had lifelong contempt for politicians.
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Until very recently, the artist was a magician who did his magic in public view but kept himself and his effects a matter of mystery.
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Corporations must pay tax.
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Of 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.
GORE VIDAL -
TV news is not very instructive.
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If you are a Representative and want to be a Senator, you must be careful not to do anything which might upset the various forces you need to harness to get elected.
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It is always a delicate matter, when a friend or acquaintance becomes president.
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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.
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All in all, I would not have missed this century for the world.
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In the German concentration camps, Jews wore yellow stars while homosexuals wore pink lambdas.
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On September 5, 1774, forty-five of the weightiest colonial men formed the First Continental Congress at Philadelphia.
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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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Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.
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Some have deplored Lincoln’s indifference to Christianity. But it was not religion, it was religiosity that put him off.
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It is very difficult for a writer of my generation, if he is honest, to pretend indifference to the work of Somerset Maugham. He was always so entirely there.
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We must declare ourselves, become known; allow the world to discover this subterranean life of ours which connects kings and farm boys, artists and clerks. Let them see that the important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.
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Envy is the central fact of American life.
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A racial or religious or tribal identity is a kind of fact.
GORE VIDAL