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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.

Gore Vidal

In writing and politicking, it’s best not to think about it, just do it.
GORE VIDAL

Best Thinking Writing
I can’t name three first-rate literary critics in the United States. I’m told there are a few hidden away at universities, but they don’t print them in ‘The New York Times.’
GORE VIDAL

Criticism Literature Myself Name University
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 VIDAL

Behave Comparison Mindset Myself Team
As for civil liberties, any one who is not vigilant may one day find himself living, if not in a police state, at least in a police city.
GORE VIDAL

Civil Finding Liberty Live Police
There is only one party in the United States: the Property party… and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat.
GORE VIDAL

Democracy Party Politics Republic
Does one ever read a politician’s books?
GORE VIDAL

Book Oneself Politics Reading
I remember the Bond movies when I was a child. They were silent then.
GORE VIDAL

Children Myself Remember Silence
That loyal retainer of the Chase Manhattan Bank, the American president.
GORE VIDAL

Bank Loyalty President
By the time a man gets to be presidential material, he’s been bought ten times over.
GORE VIDAL

Himself Man Material President Time
Now you have people in Washington who have no interest in the country at all. They’re interested in their companies, their corporations grabbing Caspian oil.
GORE VIDAL

Company Corporation Country Interest People Yourself
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

Friendship Moments Myself Past Surprise
I am not, at heart, a playwright.
GORE VIDAL

Heart Personality Play
I never wanted to be a writer. I mean, that’s the last thing I wanted.
GORE VIDAL

Dream Myself Writing
I can understand companionship.
GORE VIDAL

Companionship Understand
I’m not a conspiracy theorist – I’m a conspiracy analyst.
GORE VIDAL

Conspiracy Myself Theory
The greatest pleasure when I started making money was not buying cars or yachts but finding myself able to have as many freshly typed drafts as possible.
GORE VIDAL

Finding Greatness Pleasure Possible
As a schoolboy, I read most of Carl Sandburg’s six-volume biography of Abraham Lincoln.
GORE VIDAL

Myself Reading
Between fourteen and nineteen, I must have begun and abandoned six novels.
GORE VIDAL

Age Beginning Myself
Every country should have at least one King Farouk.
GORE VIDAL

Country Oneself
The media can’t get anything straight.
GORE VIDAL

Media Straight
It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.
GORE VIDAL

Enough Failure Success
Ayn Rand is a rhetorician who writes novels I have never been able to read.
GORE VIDAL

Myself Novel Reading Writing
As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests.
GORE VIDAL

Election Illumination Language Liberal Society Vote
The more money an American accumulates, the less interesting he becomes.
GORE VIDAL

Himself Interesting Money
For the record, I’m a Second World War veteran and served in the Pacific.
GORE VIDAL

Record Severe War World
Remember, I’m West Point, where I was born. My father went there.
GORE VIDAL

Born Father Myself Remember
The unfed mind devours itself.
GORE VIDAL

Devour Mindset

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.

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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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