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Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so.

Gore Vidal

At any given moment, public opinion is a chaos of superstition, misinformation and prejudice.
GORE VIDAL

Chaos Moments Opinion Prejudice Public
I never miss a chance to have sex or appear on television.
GORE VIDAL

Appearance Chance Missing Television
For the record, I’m a Second World War veteran and served in the Pacific.
GORE VIDAL

Record Severe War World
I remember the Bond movies when I was a child. They were silent then.
GORE VIDAL

Children Myself Remember Silence
I never said I was gay, because I don’t think anyone is.
GORE VIDAL

Myself Sexuality Thinking
Does one ever read a politician’s books?
GORE VIDAL

Book Oneself Politics Reading
Ayn Rand is a rhetorician who writes novels I have never been able to read.
GORE VIDAL

Myself Novel Reading 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
Remember, I’m West Point, where I was born. My father went there.
GORE VIDAL

Born Father Myself Remember
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
It is essential to naturalist doctrine that literature, to be good, must, finally, be the author’s experience worked out literally.
GORE VIDAL

Essential Experience Literature Natural Work
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.
GORE VIDAL

Election Force Yourself
World War II made prosperous the United States, which had been undergoing a depression for a dozen years, and made very rich those magnates and their managers who govern the republic – with many a wink – in the people’s name.
GORE VIDAL

Depression Government Manager Name People Public Rich War
Today’s public figures can no longer write their own speeches or books, and there is some evidence that they can’t read them either.
GORE VIDAL

Evidence Figure Reading Speech
In the writing of novels, there is the problem of how to shape a narrative.
GORE VIDAL

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

Best Thinking Writing
I’ve yet to read a memoir by anyone I’ve known at all well that came anywhere near to the truth.
GORE VIDAL

Myself Reading Truth
The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity – much less dissent.
GORE VIDAL

Elimination Management Media Object Opinion World
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.
GORE VIDAL

Bird Man Stand Time
Temperamentally, I am suspicious of belonging to anything. When I ran for office, I debated seriously whether or not to run as an independent because I was not eager to be saddled with the Democratic Party, because any party label is committing.
GORE VIDAL

Commitment Democracy Government Independent Party Politics Serious
I am not, at heart, a playwright.
GORE VIDAL

Heart Personality Play
Some writers take to drink, others take to audiences.
GORE VIDAL

Audience Drink Writing
It is always a delicate matter, when a friend or acquaintance becomes president.
GORE VIDAL

Delicate Friendship President
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.
GORE VIDAL

Age Perfection Progression Rule Television
Washington turned a blind eye to Al-Qaeda.
GORE VIDAL

Blind Eyes Ignore
The behaviour of President Bush on 11 September certainly gives rise to not unnatural suspicions.
GORE VIDAL

Natural President Rise Suspicion
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.
GORE VIDAL

Crime Disturb Order Peace Police Responsibility

Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so.

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Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so.

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Popular Authors

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