Some of my father’s fellow West Pointers once asked him why I turned out so well, his secret in raising me. And he said, ‘I never gave him any advice, and he never asked for any.’ We agreed on nothing, but we never quarreled once.
GORE VIDALI’m exactly as I appear. There is no warm, lovable person inside. Beneath my cold exterior, once you break the ice, you find cold water.
More Gore Vidal Quotes
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When I say ‘president,’ I still mean Roosevelt – wisely, I think.
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To invent a war means that you’ve become a wartime president, and you can suspend much if not all of the Bill of Rights.
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I’m a fervent foe of water pollution, whether it is our own Hudson River or Philadelphia’s tap water.
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Policemen are seldom tried for their crimes, or indeed, held responsible for what they do, which disturbs the peace and causes distress among the orderly.
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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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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 genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return.
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All in all, I would not have missed this century for the world.
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I am not, at heart, a playwright.
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I was the most famous kid in the United States. That was 1936.
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I could be a lot happier. I could be the senator from Aerospace taking bribes, and be quite happy.
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What I like least about myself is my belligerence.
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The American high school graduate is two years behind his English, French or German counterpart; in Alabama, God knows how far behind.
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The United States is a madhouse.
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Jews, blacks and homosexuals are despised by the Christian and Communist majorities of East and West. Also, as a result of the invention of Israel, Jews can now count on the hatred of the Islamic world.
GORE VIDAL